Daily Los Angeles herald., 1878-08-02
smin,ax versus F.,n,rE.

Quo Oh Tue most UpoTtunt. queo
tlons now In this State Is on trial
at Yuba City In the mining debris
case. It is now actually question
with a great portion of California
whether hydraulic mining shall
proceed and all the land below lis
level be destroyed for farming pur-
poses, or whether we shall in de-
fence of a greater industry pro-
hibit one peculiar branch of a
lesser industry. AS the Record
Union truly says, hydraulic mining
Is steadil ly destroying the principal
rivers Of the State. 1t has already
inflicted enor NOUS injury upsn
the Sacramento river. 1t has 80
fillsd up the bed Of that stream
that every winter brings higher
floods than before. 1t has become
necessary to highten the levess
everywhere, and Notwithstanding
these precautionary measures it'll
evident that time must come
when this pr ocess will cease to af-
ford protection, while it is olear
that every break In the levees
must involve increased destruction
Of property, the higher they are
raised. Nor is this all. Suisun
bay is being filled up with mining
debris, and the harbor Of San Fran
cisco is threatened with destruc-
ton. The consequences of hy-
drAulic mining, If carried on for
twenty years from the present time
even ut the same rate as now, must
be calami teus to the enduring in
terests OF the State. The most fer.
tile area of the State. The most
fertile area of the northern region
Is menaced with destruction. 1t
Will, if no preventive measures are
ado pied, be gradually buried under
sew eral feet of barren sand, inca.
pable of cultivation. Navigation
Of the Sacramento will be stopped,
and the river will be transformed
into q mere ditch. Tn the winter
it will bring down sudden and
heavy foods, and its waters will
overtop its banks, and overflow
hundreds of leagues of country. In
the summer 1t will run almost dry,
and will be unnavigable for any
thing hut row boats. On the other
hand, the hydraulic mines, at the
same time that they are destroying
the country below them, are maxi
lug bowling desert of the region
In which they are situated. The
washing down Of the upper strata
of soil from wide areas Of country
leaves the bedrock exposed 10
view, and makes any future cult.
vation of that region impossi-
BILE. 1t is being prepared to pre-
cipi tate storm waters with sudden
violence upon the valleys be-
low. In a few years the mines
m ust be exhausted, and then the
entire mining region will have to
be abandoned. If the working Of
the mines has in the meantime re-
suited In the ruin of the valleys,
the prospects of the State will have
been effectually blighted. These
considerations demonstrate the alb
soIute necessity Of changing the
old mining policy. The conditions
have already been virtually altered.
California is no longer substan-
TALLY a mining State. The min
ing interest has long since become
one of secondary: Importance, and
it must yield to more enduring
ones. 1t is of infinitely more i'm
portance that the fertility of ii la
BILE land should be preserved, and
that the rivers should be kept open,
.end that the valley cities should
be protected against floods, than
that the hydraulic mines should
be maintained. We have discov.
cred that an acre of good arabic
land is far more valuable to the
State than an acre of mineral land,
no matter how thickly the latter
may be studded with gold and sill
yer. For whereas the mineral
land can only contain limited
wealth in the precious metals, the
productive capacity OF the farming
land is unlimited, and it endures
forever. AS a matter of State pol
icy, therefore, il is clear that the
protection of the agricultural in
terest demands and must receive
the first consideration. AS q ques-
tlon of rights and privileges it is
also beginning TO be realized that
the miners cannot possess an eq1it-
able claim to pursue their busi-
ness at the sacrifice of their neigh
boris interests. The Rights of
Man must always stop at the point
where the enjoyment of a liberty
further entails the -perpetration of
a wrong. No man has ever been
guaranteed the liberty which re-
quires the infiiction Of injury upon
another for its full fruition. Every
man is equally entitled to protec-
tlon in the prosecution of legiti-
mate industries, and therefore the
farmer must be eatitled tSSs9sprote tee
tion against the ssdims Ss1eposit-