Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-02-14
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writers that there is great opening for
manufactures in this State, and yet the
facts remain, first, that capitalists are in
disposed to invest in such enterprises, and
second, that very few such enterprises
have succeeded in the past. The causes of
failure have been various, but perhaps the
most formidable has been the want of a
| sufficient market. Labor has been dear
here, and when material cost as much as in
the Eastern States, 1T has been found diff
cult to compete with the products of that
region. Chinese labor has not only failed
to solve the problem, but in some cases has
complicated it. Thus in the manufacture
of boots and shoes, where Chinese were at
first employed, they utilized the knowl-
edge they gained by going into the business
for themselves, and at once proceeded to
drive their former employers from the
market by selling goods 80 per cent.
cheaper than the product of white men
could be sold. There is reason to believe
that the same thing would happen in al.
most any manufacture after little while,
for there are now plenty of Chinese CAPT
talists in the State, and if they thought
the Government would protect them they
would no doubt be willing to purchase
machinery, and enter upon more extensive
operations. If the Chinese were got rid
of, however, it does not follow that the
establishment Of manufactures would be
facilitated greatly. While labor and fuel
and rent and gas are all very much more
costly here than at the East, the induce.
ments to embark capital in manufactures
are not sufficient to produce any marked
change in the situation. Before local en-.
terprise can succeed in competition with
Eastern enterprise, it must be able to pro-
duce as cheaply as the latter Against
Eastern manufactures, moreover, no tariff
protection is possible. Free Trade controls
that rivalry, and this free trade between
California and the East is one of the causes
of the failure of manufacturing expert
ments here. When the manufacturing
era opens here, the disposition to gamble
in stocks will have been outgrown by our
capitalists, and they will have become sat-
ished with legitimate and moderate profits.
When that time arrives, however, the mag
nificent water.poweI which is now running
- - ~,
caught and haInessed, and thus one of the
difficulties of the present will be removed.
We referred above to the want of
sufficient market as one of the deterrents
No doubt the belief in the lack of a market
has operated to check the establishment of
manufactures, but it may be questioned
whether the belief is well founded. When
the manufactures of Flanders, Amsterdam.
Antwerp, Delft, and the Netherlands gen.
orally, were first established, they had
much more limited market than California !
and the Pacific coast affords. There are |
within reach of our manufacturers fully |
four millions of their own countrymen, not |
to speak of the markets of China, India and |
Australia. OF raw material the State sup
plies, or can supply, almost any staple but |
hard wood. 1t is possible that the pro-
vincial spirit which prefers imported goods
to those of home production, which mag
ines that what comes from the biggest city |
must be the best, is destined to retard man |
ufactures somewhat, and all these considera- !
lions have to be taken into the account. Nor
is it of any use to berate capitalists because
they prefer other forms OF investment. |
They may be wrong as to the superb
ority of those which they adhere to. |
but the presumption is the other
way The habits of twenty years, more
over, are not to be lightly changed, and