Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-11-25

Gated, the property-owners of San Fran
cisco ought to find out why manufactures
have not heretofore been established there.
The rational presumption in such case
always is that they would not pay. If
the conditions which have initiated
against them in the past are such as
must continue to operate, how can it be
expected that they can be made profitable
If the conditions which have discouraged
them in the past are temporary and evan
escent, the case will no doubt be different,
but the actual facts ought first of all to
be clearly and fully ascertained. 1t must
not be forgotten that manufactures in
California have thus far been handicapped
by Eastern competition. The East has
the advantages we have named above, and
is likely to retain them. What has San
Francisco to set against these advantages ?
There is one great opportunity for the es-
Enlistment of manufactures in this State,
but it does not exist at the metropolis. The
water power of the American river at Fol-
som has long marked out this region as the
seat of great industries at some future
time. This is in fact the one opening for
manufactures which does not seem to be
fatally loaded down. There may come a
period when it will be possible to make
manufacturing center of San Francisco,
but obviously it cannot be until that city
IS able to compete on equal terms with
the East, against which there never can
be any protection. Philadelphia sue
ceeded because all the conditions of success
were present there. Those conditions are
not present here, and therefore the
proposition under discussion appears to us
in the nature of forlorn hope. No doubt
if five millions of dollars were raised by
the property owners of San Francisco they
could establish manufactures but it ap-
pears extremely doubtful whether they
would be able to stand alone when the
time came for withdrawing their props.
Certainly the results of such experiments
as have been made in the past do not en-
courage further attempts of the kind, and
when the great railroad system, how in its
infancy, has been completed, it must be re-
allied that competition with the rest of
the country will become sharper than
ever.
IN TIME OF PEACE, PREPARE FOR WAR.
The most important and interesting
topic in the report of the Secretary of War
is the discussion of the urgent necessity
for improving the coast defenses of the
Union. For years past thoughtful observ-
ers have from time to time called atten-
ton to the detenseless condition of our
principal ports. This defenselessness how
ever, has been made the more conspicuous
by the rapid advances of science in pro-
jectiles and armor. The fifteen years
which have elapsed since the end of the re-
bellion have been prolific in warlike inven-
tions. Naval architecture and naval
artillery have in that period undergone
revolutionary changes. Vessels and guns
are now made which would laugh to scorn
the most formidable of our marine forts
and batteries; which would silence our
heaviest ordnance which would destroy
our most solid Notifications and pass our
most elaborate barriers to prey upon our
shipping and our commercial and financial
centers. There is to-day no American
port which could prevent the entrance of
ment. Even as we write an illus
tration of the changes which have occurred
in naval warfare is being given through
the war between Chile and Peru, for a
Chilean vessel is now lying off Callao, far
beyond the range of the city's heaviest
guns, and pitching shells a distance of eight
miles right into the heart of the place.
What could New York, or Philadelphia, or
Boston, or New Orleans, or San Francisco
do against such guns? And yet the Chilean
gun is feeble compared to many of the
enormous cannon now being constructed.
In fact it is perfectly clear that if we should
within any brief period find ourselves en-
broiled with foreign power, we should be
obliged to rely altogether upon torpedoes
for the defense of our seaports. Torpedoes
might, perhaps, keep an enemy out of our
harbors for time, though even that is
doubtful, for science has invented as many
detective and precautionary devices as de-
structive agents, and nowadays the tor
pedo service is so well understood that
attacking vessels experience little difficulty
in finding and neutralizing the defensive
magazines. But torpedoes, however skill
fully laid, would be useless to protect ports
against long range guns. The harbors
might be effectually guarded, but of what
service would that be when the enemy
could lay six or eight miles away
and throw shells over the Notifications and
into the cities It must be remembered
that we have no navy capable of coping
with the latest development of the iron
clad. Extemporized Monitors and Mer-
rimacs would be quite incapable of resist.
ing the attacks of these monsters, or of
barring their approach to our ports. Moth
ing but the arming of our ports with the
most powerful long-range guns attainable
can give US any real security, and this is a
measure which demands great expen-
diture not only of money but time. IN
less the recommendations of the Secretary
of War are acted upon by Congress, there
fore, and at least a beginning is made to
this indispensable coast armament, it may
be regarded as certain that some day we
shall become involved in war only to dis
cover, when it is too late, that neither ma
tional wealth nor national confidence are
effective substitutes for rational and timely