Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-03-08

lnlneIs Has6 hence tue TlguL 20 Mi up the VAL
! ley artifcially? What have all the references
| to the Pc and Gsnges and Hoangho to do
with the case? We know there is on all
| rivers a certain amount of wash we know
| rivers build in their deltas we know the face
| OF the earth in ages has changed; but how
| does all that affect the right f the miners
TO BURY UP THE VALLEY?
Because Pliny tells how they mined 2, eco
| years ago, shall therefore the Sacramento val
| ley be ruined! They forget to tell US that
P.iHy says the Senate By decree protected
| Italy from the search for metals that min.
| ing was prohibited there 1000 years ago, and
] ever sincs her cities and towns and lands
have been protected. As Italy was saved by
the decree of the Senate of old, go must Cali
| fornia be saved, and the future historian re.
cord, as Pliny did of Italy. California was
rich in minerals, but by decree of the people
mining was prohibited and the soil protected
| from impending ruin. They say only 4S coo
acres of farming land has been destroyed, and
| that the damage is but about two or three
millions. But tie Court knows great bodies
OF rarely fertile land have been destroyed by
mining deposits along the American, the
| Bear and the Yuba. By vast outiays farm
ers here and there have built works to keep
| off the ruiz. This very season. in Suffer
county, the people have spent . per cent.
| alone TO keep the sand from flowing over
them, and have gone into debt for per cent
more, aud yet could build but part of the
distance required. No fact ia clearer than
this, that a terrible calamity is impending
aud will eliminate unless hydraulic mining
| cease. He. Judge Belcher, was here because
his people are threatened aud their homes in
danger. He was not here as against the G I'D
Run mine. There are whole counties thickly
populated that will be ruined and the people
driven away unlets there be relief. For
!eirs
THIS QUESTION HAS BEEN AGITATED,
And the people have been sorely taxed, and
they have struggled and fought for foot
hold, until patiencs has ceased TO be virtue.
Can there be any doubt that if relief does not
come, appalling disaster must fall upon this
people! He told touching story of farmer,
well-to do, who lost his farm on the Yubs,
and was driven out and died, and now his
daughter, poor and needy, is begging that
some pittance be paid her for the homestead
now far beneath the banks of Mining debris.
The miners admit the rivers have been filed.
At Marysvills the Yuba is filed over twenty
feet, and to its very top. They tell us natu-
raj wash has done it, How is it these effects
are not found on streams where there is no
mining Counsel saw the beginning Of by.
draulic mining in 1854. and has watched it
down to the present day. He kaew early
| mining had done much to injure the streams.
He was asking now not for relief from all
the injury of the past, but that those nor
engaged shall cease to continue to add to the
injury already inflicted. Counsel described
| the tremendous force of the hydraulic mont
tors thousand fold more of gravel is 10
be worked than has been, they tell us, with
new machinery aud more and more powerful
water-h5 ads.
II THEY HAVE A RIGHT
To mine low they have a right for one hun
dred years TO come, and to work ous all the
hills and mountains. for ever all new veiis
sre bsiug discovered. If they can Gig cut tie
tAia line OF gold-bearing earth and not De.
str0y the valley, the people will not OF ct.
They have beea long suffering, and do net
wish to destroy mining bit it the tine
comes that all mining threatens the valley, it
must cesse. That is not nov the si.uation
They tell IL, that miners Gus.o ns give them a
right to go on, and that it has
RIPzNED BT PRESCRIPTION.
The right to make mining rules in 1850 IS the
same to-day. bat must not be in conflict with
State or Federal laws. Suppose they should
90 upon the MERGED river. now bright and
p1rs, and dashing through Yosemite valley
20 on public land above the valley and find
establish customs, and begin to send down
sand and gravel into Yosemite? At once the
State would say, Here you are destroy ing
my valley forever gift to me, heritage
forever But the miner replies, Goa yes;
but have right to establish rules aud Gus
toms, etc, and if the result fills up Yosemite
and ruins your falls and streams and mead
ows, y0u must stand it," II is folly; in the
whole history of the State such right has been
denied by decision and statute. The first case
was that at BidwelPs Bar. where the Supreme
Court g Cal, Fi'zyerald's easel denied the
miners right to take the plaintiffs land by
his mining processes. So in 16 Cal, 154, the
Court held the Legislature couldn't give the
miners the right to mine on private property
and destroy the fruits Of labor. So run all
the decisions When one interferes with an.
others property and puts that on it that de-
s'roys its usefulness, it is taking Of the
property. Wood on Nuisances; Cooley on
Torts. - Well, 166 The Supreme Court
has even said yOI cannot co.dsmn land fer
a private use, ard
THE MINERS RIGHT Is NOT PUBLIC USE.
Such is the uniform rule. No power in the
world can, has or will give the miner right
to put his taiiings on the lands below him
for man cannot be deprived of his property
even for public purpose without compensa.
biDhs L nc Ndl-CJ ID tCSuplSu ny ptOple,
homes aad farms, and these homes were
bought OF the Government Mr.. Wilson
says the defenda 1t has a right to take the
streams, to use them to food the lands with
debris. In all ths history Of the law no war
rant can be found for such statement. They
say they have license to do it. From the
foundation of the Government that has been
denied and it has been declared always you
shall not even damage man without his
consent. The necessities of desperate case
alone force forward these preposterous pleas
and pretenses. Tbs Governu emit has never
granted license, says the Supreme Court
the supposed license of the miner from the
General Government consists only in its for
bearauce, soys the same Court letting cases)
If there is no right to bury lands of the peo-
pie. is there right then to fill up the rivers
Of the people? That the rivers are filled they
admit, and try to account for ii, and say the
rivers afford still all the navigation demand
ed. Why
THE KILOGRAMS THIS MORNING
Show that at the Feathers mouth a vast bar
has filled in, and while here the water is
low, above the Feather is the highest water
ever known, and all the country is being
flooded, because the debris bar has backed
the waters up over the people. From the
earliest time oSst ucsing the river has been
declared TO be a crime in California. Neither
Government has given, pretended to give, or
done anything by which right can be in
ferred to fill the river, or to impair naviga-
ton in the slightest degree. A few years ago
tie largest San Francisco steamers went to
the foot OF g street. Marysviile, now the
sand ia not three feet below the surface OF the
ground there. Here, opposite Sacramento,
the river is filed II feet Does this consti.
tute nuisance? Wood says any unauthor-
lied obstruction of stream is nuisance.
Mr.. Catlin says
you DON'T MED LARGE STEAMERS
Any more. What business Is it of yours.
sir, rs to what we need, or whether we shall
freight by rail or water. No one is bound to
be even benefited against his will Wood
on Nuisauces Because the miner thinks we
don't need large steamers. is that reason
the rivers may be filed, They say the world
needs the gold. and so for the public good
must hy draulic mining go on. The decisions
| are all the other way. The law Gays it is no
excuse for injuripg stream. In Hun.
| phrey il was claimed the obstruction was a
benefit, and the Court said that is questic n
that cannot be considered. The only question
| is, has defendant obstructsd tho stream. II