Sacramento daily record-union., 1881-02-14
SACRAMENTO AND THE DEBRIS QUES-
TION.

consideration the interests of Sacramento
in connection with the Debris question
To the end that intelligent action may be
had on the subject it is necessary that the
situation should be carefully examined at
the outset. When the farmers of Bear
river first appealed to the Courts for pro-
tecsion against the fow of debris from the
hydraulic mines, the RECORD UNION took
the position that the miners ought to be
compelled to make such disposition of their
debris as would prevent the injury of the
lands below them. We then demonstrated
the applicability to this case of the IA
miliar legal principle that it is incumbent
upon every man so to use his property as
not to injure others. From an abstract
standpoint we believed then, and still be-
lieve, that this position is impregnable.
But the situation was not simple one,
and other considerations rendered it ad-
visable and even necessary to seek
compromise. The business interests of
WSIC SlOoCiJ SOhiCStOo WIN
the prosperity of the mining counties, and
it was urged upon us that by insisting upon
the principle we had originally advocated
we should entail very serious injury upon
this community. The conditions which at
that time controlled the situation are as
cogent to-day as ever. The merchants OF
Sacramento can no more afford now than
they could then to take position of direct
antagonism to the interests of the mining
counties, which are among their best GUS
toners.
To demand the stoppage Of hydraulic
mining would be to reverse the policy which
this community adopted at the outset of
the agitation, and to admit that the orig
NAL attitude of the RECORD UNION on the
question was, after all, the right one
While such an admission might be fat
tering to the prescience of this journal,
however, it would certainly involve con-
fession that our business men did not un.
derstand their own interests. 1t is further
necessary to inquire, before proposing SO
radical change of policy, whether such
proposition would have any prospect of
success if put before the Legislature. We
have already made that inquiry, and we
are permitted to state, upon the authority
of Senator Sears, who is acknowledged to
be the leader of the movement for the re-
peal of the debris bill, that it would be
impossible to obtain more than ten votes
in the Senate for bill looking to inter-
ference of any kind with hydraulic mining.
1t appears therefore, ~ that the business
interests of Sacramento have always ren.
dered it highly injudicious for this COM
munity to demand the cessation of hy-
draulic mining and, q that even if Sac
ramento should reverse its deliberately
adopted and we'll grounded business policy
in this regard, it would be impossible to
obtain the end sought by legislation at this
time.
We come now to the question of repeal.
ing the debris bill. There are, we are
aware, certain residents of this city who
think that whatever funds the city can
spare ought to be devoted exclusively to
the strengthening of its own defenses, and
who are consequently opposed to any COM
prehensive plan of relief and protection
It does not appear to us that this is diff.
cult question. 1t might be good policy to
adopt the course indicated if Sacramento
was capable of self-subsistence if, that is
to say, it mattered nothing to her whether
the Sacramento valley was destroyed or
not. But this is not the case. Sacramento
is entirely dependent for her prosperity
upon the prosperity of the surrounding
country, and therefore she cannot afford to
shut her eyes to the dangers which
threaten her neighbors, nor can she save
herself by confining all her efforts to the
improvement of her own defenses. Should
she do SO we should perhaps have in few
years an impregnable levee system, but by
the time it was completed we should have
ceased to possess anything worth protect
ing. If the debris bill is repealed, and
hydraulic mining is not checked, it is very
plain that the whole of the valley outside
our city limits will be left to the mercy of
floods which will In the natural course of
things become more destructive every win
ter. Thus our trade would be swept away,
and when at length the valley above and
below us had been rendered uninhabitable,
we should realize, too late, that the princi-
pie of community interest is after all the
only sound one.
But this is not all. The repeal of the
remedial agencies. 1t means the surrender
of our rivers to the destructive forces now
at work upon them. And it must be real
lied that if these forces are unchecked it
will become necessary for us to raise our
levees higher and higher year after year,
until at last we have reached a situation
in which the slightest disaster to our de-
fenses will involve the destruction of the
city. We cannot, therefore, hope to free
ourselves from the difficulties which sur
round us by policy of isolation, and this
consideration ought to demonstrate the
futility of trying to solve the problem by
the methods proposed.
Supposing even that it was possible to
bring about the suspension of hydraulic
mining-if not by legislation, by judicial
iniunction-this would not meet the ext
gencies of the case. We should then lose
all the trade of the mining counties, to
begin with; and we should still have to
cope with the debris which has already
left the mines and is working it's way
down to the valley; and which, as the
engineers tell us, is of itself sufficient in
quantity to ruin the whole valley. More
Il !