The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1880-03-04
LETTER FROM CALIFORNIA.
Across the Continent - Mon0poI Hes
The Chinese P0puiHtion-EviIs of
the stock Market - Dennis
Kearney and His Party.
SAN FRANoIsco, February q, lSso,

SAN FRANCisco, February ~, lSs0,
When was n boy (mony years Ngo) tho
great Pacific ocean, outside Of the geography,
had no existence for inc except in imaginA-
ton. could not finite II 10 my comprehen-
sion. Now, however, after residence of
seven or eight years in this city, seem 10
take II all in MS only q single piece Of crea-
ton. 1t is wonderful how the physical i'm
provements Of the age have made tho world
to It's inhabitants. If our minds have not
been enlarged by them, the world has surely
been greatly belitlcd. II is not half as large,
seemingly, as it was forty years ago, when we
Travelled in stage coaches and canal packets
Ono whose experience enables him 10 realize
how time and space have been annihialed
by railroads on one side and steamboats, on
the other, has less care now about trip
across the continent or across the Pacific
than iorty years ago he experienced In tho
preparation for journey of two hundred
miles in any direction from his own home.
In year or two the good people of your
thriving city, through the medium of the
Southern Overland and some of the numer-
Gus diverging roads, will be able 10 make tho
trip to San Francisco in two or three days.
Just think Of it How long will it be, il those
agencies increase for another half century as
they have in the past fifty years, before the
entire world will become n mere neghbor-
hood, and all its "infnite variety" so stale
that we shall have 10 devise means for visit
ing the planets.
California, the State of all others most
favored by natural as we'll as physical re-
sources and conditions, and which ought to
derive greater benefits from its improvements
than any other State in the Union, has made
so many and such gross mistakes that its
growth and Importance are about entirely
attributable to the simple fact that il could
not help being just what it is. Certain enter
prises indeed have been pushed forward with
wonderful energy, but as soon as they could
be made to operate as monopolies all interest
in their further progress was absorbed in
shaping them to avoid competition. This
selfish spirit has consolidated all our railroad
interests and subjected the people to ruinous
freight tariffs and expensive fares 1t has
gobbled up all the best farming lands in the
State and thereby prevented the heslty set
Element Of the interior. 1t has monopolzed
the water and gas in the cities and placed the
citizens under most oppressive and unjust
monthly tax for the common necessaries of
life. 1t has concentrated in the control of
two or three companies, the vast interests Of
ocean steam navigation, thus stimulating to
an unreasonable extent the rates of transport
tation and travel. In its present condition
the State may be aptly likoned to an enor-
nous animal with leeches fastened to every
vein and artery, which despite the loss of
blood needful for the engagement, still lives
and moves onward, showing by its achiev-
ments under difficulties, what surprising
progress it would make if they were
removed.
Another great impeachment to the prosper
ity of the State and court is our large and
increasing Chinese population. These peo-
ple.are the most industrious, most ingenious,
and most inexpensively sustained of any in
the world. They work for less than half the
ordinary prices for labor, and those who can
not find employment as laborers engage in
business on their own account, and sell their
wares at prices which defy the competition
of our own manufacturers. They are the
shrewdest dealers in our city-snd, if undis-
turbed, remarkably well behaved and peace
full. But they are incorrigible hoathen their
civilization has no affinity for ours, and thsy
can never become citizens. Their earnings
and their dead bodies 20 to China, and they
are mere alien element, fattening upon the
rights and privileges OF the loyal people of
our republic. If the effects of their pres
ence were felt generally throughout the cit
les of the union as they are felt here we should
not be long without a remedy, but our peo-
pile are slow to learn, even from experience.
We have in this city thirty thousand Chinese
engaged in pursuits which embrace many of
our most important industries.
The most positively runous of all the evils
which affect this city and State is the stock
market. There is probably more wealth in
San Francisco than in any other city in the
Union. We have at least one hundred and
fifty citizens whose wealth is variously sst-
mated at from one million to thirty millions
ofdollars. In most instances this wealth has
been acquired by the adroit manipulation of
mining stocks-a business fuller of corrup-
ton, more precarious, attended with greater
disasters, than any other in the world. For
every one that Is enriched by it thousands
are Impoverished. 1t is the most alluring.
most uncertain species of gambling. Those
who engage in it, despite repeated failures,
never abandon it. The few fortunate ones,
after few successes, make no more failures,
but open brokers' offices, buy seats in the
stock board, and devote their lives to the
business of manipulation. Under their man.
agement the market is so controlled that the
lopes fall upon the poor dupes who conati-
tute, perhaps, one-sixth of our population.
The money earned by clerks, officials, day Ia
borers, poor women and small operators is
whirled into the vortex of rising stock
market, and gobbled by the wire-pulling