Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-10-25
THE IMPRESSIONS OF THE SAN FRAN
CISCO COMMITTEE.


actually done in the way of destroying ag.
ricultural property. 1t has also inspected
the hydraulic mines, and has heard how
costly are the preliminary operations and |
how heavy are the investments in that class |
of property. 1t has had the inestimable
advantages, first, OF viewing everything
with its own eyes, and, second of hearing
all that can be said on both sides from the
parties in interest themselves. In doing
all this the San Francisco committee has
incidentally advanced the question a de-
gree nearer settlement, for it has made pos
sible friendly meeting between farmers
and miners. For the first time representa-
tives OF both parties have met dispassion-
ately and coolly, and have discussed the is-
sue in rational and practical way. And
as result of this novel experiment we
find the miners declaring their readiness to
take care of their tailings if the farmers
will agree to rest content with such an ar
rangement, and will desist from the en-
deavor to put stop to hydraulic mining
altogether. And we find the farmers on
their part making no less conciliatory and
temperate propositions. They say they do
not desire the ruin Of the mining interest,
but only protection for themselves, and
they express a willingness to accept the
offer made by the miners. Meantime the
San Francisco committee, thoroughly i'm
pressed with the magnitude of the ques-
ton, takes the broad view of the situation
which the RECORD UNION has advocated SO
long, and urges the adoption of such
course as will render possible compro
mise securing the safety of both parties to
the controversy.
The committee, and singular as it may
seem, such veteran lawyers as Niles Searles
and Albert Dibble, are unit on the prop
osition that litigation ought to be avoided,
and that it can never solve the problem.
The committee are strongly disposed to re-
port in favor of the appointment of author
lied representatives of both sides, and the
holding of meeting to adjust the whole
question, the San Francisco Chamber of
Commerce. or the committee itself, occu
plying the office of moderator or referee
And thus after months of acrimonious
controversy and suggestions looking to the
widest and most exasperating resorts, the
first practical and common sense attempt
to find out the actual rights and wrongs of
the case, and to obtain realization of the
Importance of the issue, has resulted in
most emphatic and harmonious vindication
OF the views the RECORD. UNION has
steadily adhered to. We have always
maintained that il this case was to be ad-
justed satisfactorily it would have to be
adjusted otherwise than by litigation, and
that is the opinion to which the San Fran
cisco committee has been forced by thor
ough examination of the situation. So far
then the committee has been working in
the right direction, and it has accomplished
distinct good in bringing the farmers and
miners together, and letting them say their
say without the interference of the lawyers.
But we do not conclude from this that
the difficulties of the case are removed, or
that it viii be an easy matter to remove
them. Unfortunately things of this kind
are seldom managed in accordance with
the matured conclusions of the most con.
servative and intelligent minds on either
side. If the clearest heads among the
farmers and miners could be empowered
to act, and could be brought together in
the manner already suggested, we have no
doubt they would settle the issue in such
way as to secure the best practical re-
suits without making any unnecessary
sacrifices. But IN such conjunctures there
is always great deal of distrust and sus-
picion. Litigation is more often the result
of want of confidence than of anything
else. Those who expect to profit by it
naturally do their utmost to foster and
enlarge this skepticism, and put all the
obstacles possible in the way of rational
and mutually confding settlement. In a
case like the present it must be expected
that no effort will be spared to SOW dis.
trust in the minds of both parties, and
that they will be kept as far apart as is
practicable.
Nevertheless if the San Francisco CON-
mittee is energetic and prompt, and if it is
seconded by the more clear minded farmers
and miners, it will be at least possible to
bring about state of affairs in which the
responsibility for the rejection of offered
terms, involving practical settlement of
the main points in dispute, must rest
upon those who are bigoted in their insist
ence upon litigation. The miners in such
an arrangement must of course guarantee
the fulfllment of their engineering under
takings, and must also produce sufficient
professional Endorsement of the plans they
propose. If then they are prepared to say,
first that it is within their power to i'm
pound all the debris capable of doing mis-
chief and, second, that they will SO i'm
pound the debris forthwith and thence.
forward, it ig even possible that the
obvious preferability of such settlement
over anything to be had through the Courts,
may carry it through to general accept
ance. This certainly Would be the best
and cheapest and in all ways most salts.
factory adjustment, for both sides, and the
most powerful consideration we can think
of in connection with it is, the consider
alton that if the farmers and miners will
only make up their minds to have this
settlement. nothing in the world can pre-.