Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-01-01

tne cleareSp manner, ana declared upon tHe
highest engineering authority, that unless
the debris is withheld from the Sacra-
mento river hereafter, not only will that
rivers navigability be destroyed, but
the harbor OF San Francisco be ruined.
Now the ruin of San Francisco harbor
would not be merely local misfor-
tune. 1t would affect every interest on
the coast, and every county in the State.
The question, however, of the serious i'm
periling of the great Sacramento valley,
with its fourishing cities, its broad acres
of fertile land, its hundreds of millions of
property values, cannot be regarded as a
local matter either. These are in truth
concerns of such weight and moment that
the whole State is not only justified in
coming to the aid of the miners and farm
ers, but it is unable to evade its obligation
to do so.
There is another consideration likely to
appeal to some The rivers of the State
its natural waterways its main
protection against excessive transportation
charges. No matter what disposition rail-
road managers may have to enforce heavy
tolls, they are estopped from doing so by
the constant competition to which rivers
expose them. Thus it is clear that if the
hydraulic mines are not restrained, their
detritus will in few years utterly destroy
the navigabihty of the Sacramento river
In so doing it will put the public at the
mercy of the transportation companies,
unless other means are taken to avert the
danger. Certainly the whole State is in
terested in maintaining cheap transporta-
ton, and equally in preventing whatever
may interfere with such cheapness. The
navigation of the rivers ought therefore to
be guarded with the utmost jealousy, and
whatever menaces it should be opposed
with the full power of the State.
But this is by no means all that can be
said on behalf of the Debris bill. Those
who seek its repeal must be prepared to
determine among themselves precisely
what advantage they expect to derive from
a policy the natural consequence of which
must be to put an end TO hydraulic min
ing, and in so doing to eliminate entirely
the tax paying element now represented
by the hydraulic mines. The probability
that this amount of taxes will not exceed
one. twentieth of one per cent. we take to
be SO slight as not to deserve mention.
Whatever the amount is, however, it would
in such case have to be distributed among
the rest of the community, and it is per-
fsctly safe assumption that it would con-
stitute a much more onerous addition to
taxation than the Drainage bill provides.
Nor is this all. 1t has been estimated
by the engineers that even if hydraulic
mining should cease tomorrow, there is
nevertheless enough detritus now accumu-
he 70
ramento river and valley when washed
down by the ordinary winter floods. This
must be taken care of then in any event.
If the hydraulic mines were closed by liti-
CATION, no help from that quarter could be
procured. 1t is equally vain to suppose
that the farmers OF the valley would be
willing to impoverish themselves to guard
their lands against destructive agencies set
in motion by others. The result would be
that the State would have to meet the out
lay, and as it would then be impossible to
make the miners pay any of it, the tax
upon the general public would be much
higher than at present.
These latter considerations are addressed
to the more selfish and what are called
"practical tendencies of the opponents
of the bill. But we must insist that the
weightiest arguments are those which rest
upon the necessity for unity and mutually
of interest among the people OF the State.
Whatever community in the past has dis
tinguished itself, whatever people have
moved for themselves a broad swathe
through the field of history, have been
deeply penetrated by this sentiment.
The maxim "In Union there is Strength, :"
is not mere truism, but an expression of
profound philosophy. There is no pitch
of prosperity to which California may not
aspire ii she adopts this principle. 1t is
not to be supposed that the aid now asked
from the whole community for the Sacra-
mento Valley will be the beginning and end
of this policy. On the contrary, it is to
be supposed that they who receive the
most direct benefit of this aid at this time
will hereafter be as willing to extend equal
advantages to those who have here reaped
the least direct profit. The principle is
one which cannot in the long run benefit
any part of the State at the expense of
any other part. 1t is the principle of
mutual aid which the nation has long
practiced, and which has always had the
best results We believe that the opposi-
ton to the bill has for the most part grown
out of misapprehcnsion of the considera.
tons involved and that calm reflection will
do much to dissipate it. That it is for the
best interests of the State, and of every
county in the State, to retain the law on
the statute book, we entertain no doubt
whatever.