Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-08-13

ment and aided, above all, by the reckless
and vindictive feeling born of losing specula-
ton, carried the new Constitution, in spite of
all efforts.
Bad as many of the provisions of the new
Constitution were, if literally interpreted,
their possible effects were much exaggerated
in the opposition to the instrument during
the canvass, and its adoption produced in
California feeling of insecurity, and else
where an impression that an irretrievable
disaster had overtaken the State. Men Of
means hesitated to invest in new enterprises,
and improvements were abandoned or de-
ferred !; large amounts of capital were trans
ferred to the East or withdrawn by absent
owners, and not only was the natural revival
of business delayed, but the depression was
intensified.
With this practical evidence that the in
terests of the community cannot be subserved
by striking at
THE INTERESTS OF ANY CLASS,
Public opinion, however. began to return to
a normal state, the demagogues quickly found
their occupation gone and the better sense Of
the people of California slowly yet surely
asserted itself. The happiest results have
followed. The Legislature has taken sem
sible view of its duty under the Constitution,
and the conservative interpretations of the
SVuitS udNC obiippCu Va tohOAioub ulCduiHS
those features which most excited antagon-
ism and alarm. Double taxation has been
most scrupulously avoided. and is now, under
the decision of the Courts, impossible, and
the fiscal system of California is substantially
that which before existed. While it may not
be up to the ideal standard which will secure
the needed revenue with the minimum of
cost and annoyance, it is certainly in no re-
spect more Objectionable than that of New
York or Massachusetts.
THE CONSTITUTION.
In many features the Constitution of Cali
fornia is eininently conservative. 1t not only
contains q number of minor provisions OF
anything but communicate character, such as
the requiring of a property qualification for
the holding of certain positions, the practical
disfranehisement to considerable extent of
the floating vote. ETC.; but now that obnox-
ious meanings have been interpreted away, it
guards the interests of property from the in
reference of hostility or ignorance with much
more security than the Constitution that pre-
coded it. The legislative power-that in
which anything like communism would most
readily manifest itself-has been very much
curtailed. Nothing but general laws can be
passed, and the power of interfering with the
taken from the Legislature and lodged in the
hands of Commission, which experience has
proved is much more subject to conservative
influences.
Further than all this. sudden changes in
obedience to gusts of popular caprice or pas
sion are made practically impossible by the
provision which requires vote of two-thirds
of all the members elected to both branches
of the Legislature before any proposition for
amendment to the Constitution or the calling
of Constitutional Convention can be SUBJ
mitted to the people, vote which it is i'm
possible that any proposal not supported by
the conservative interests of the State can
ever command.
EMBoDYING SUCH SAFEGUARDS
And with the reasonable interpretations
which the Courts have put upon all its ques-
tionable provisions, the new Constitution of
California gives every guarantee for the
security of property, and whatever timidity
prevailed among California capitalists has en-.
tirely passed away. And much as the agita-
ton that preceded. and the uncertainty that
followed the adoption of the new Constitu-
ton, may have cost the State, it is now ap-
parent that lesson of commensurate value
has been learned. Experience, If severe, is
a most effective teacher. Large numbers OF
our people realize as they never realized before,
that to unduly burden capital is to injure the
poorer classes of society even more than the
richer, and that to hamper enterprise and
threaten the security of property are the most
certain means Of paralyzing industry. and
depriving labor of employment. The discus
sion that has gone on has led to better
understanding of economic principles, and
any proposition involving that species of
double taxation of certain forms Of capital
which so many of our States have tried to inn
pose, would now. think, be voted down in
California, even were there any way of get
ting it before the people while the PROPOSE
ton that capital and improvements should in
the general interests be entirely exempt from
taxation, which has been urged in some quar-
tiers with good deal of force, seems to be
steadily making way.
ANOTHER DIFFICULTY
Which has been productive of much irrita-
ton is now in fair way of being removed.
That the Chinese have been of use in the in
dustrial development of the Pacific coast is
unquestionable, but it is as unquestionable
that the antipathies excited by their pres
ence and the fears of their overwhelming in
fux have been thu cause of much social dis
content and political agitation. The treaty
with China, recently ratified, gives to our
Government the power of restricting or pro-
hibiting the immigration of Chinese laborels
without interfering with a proper national
hospitality towards Chinese students or tray
elers or merchants, and the enactment of
laws in consonance with this treaty, which
will doubtless take place at the next session
of Congress, will remove a cause of danger
Gus agitation, and solve question which
though it has attracted comparatively little
attention in the Eastern States of the Union,
has been to thoughtful men on the Pacific
coast source of grave anxiety.
THE FUTURE OF CALIFORNIA,
1 have spoken with candor of the past
but pleasanter duty awaits me in speaking
of the future. That California, and the
whole Pacific coast, is now passing into an
era of the greatest prosperity and most rapid
development, there are evidences on every
hand.
During all this time of comparative de-
preston, business has been adjusting itself to
the new order of things consequent upon
closer communication with the rest of the
world; agriculture has been extending
manufactures taking root greater economy
being learned, and broader and more stable
base prepared for the growth of the future
the transition, in fact, taking place from an
industrial and social system largely character
lied by the speculative and restless tendencies
of the early days, to an industrial and social
system partaking of the character of those
stable occupations which if they yield few
sudden prizes are mora certain in their re-
suits.
SAN FRANCISCO.
Though San Francisco has not recently
been growing with the rapid strides to which
her people had become accustomed-and, in
fact, during the few years previous to 1880,
her population actually lessened-yet the
agricultural districts have been steadily fill.
ing up. The number of people engaged in
watching stock-indicators, and in supplying
the demands of extravaganza habits by buying
aud selling fictitious values, has greatly
diminished, but the number of people en-
gagged in those industries which are produc-
tive OF actual wealth has proportionately in
creased, and between producers and ex-
changers better equilibrium has been estab-
lished. All this year there has been gradual
but steady improvement in the business of
San Francisco i just such an improvement
as in the Eastern cities indicated the passing
away of the depression from which they had
so long suffered, and the approach of that
era of prosperous activity now in full course
There is no better index of TIE business of
the Pacific coast than the transactions of
Wells, Fargo & Company, and never before
have these been larger. The condition of
our banks was never stronger; there Is an
abundance of capital, and the rate of inter.
est has fallen to an approximation to the
Eastern standard there is a readiness to
invest in permanent improvements, and the
demand for labor is active and healthy.
THE PRODUCT OF THE PRECIOUS METALS
In the United States reached its highest point
in 1877, when the mines of Nevada alone