Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-06-10
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announce that we give corporation or
class right to prey upon others Did she
give to IS or 100 companies the right to
sacrifice absolutely the rights of property
of others-to destroy their homes, blast
their futures, and mar the prospects of
their children? This farming community
occupied 20 square miles of territory. The
farming population formed only one-half
the inhabitants at the most. A like num-
Der found their support from the employ.
ment furnished by the needs and products
OF the agriculture. Their homes, their
shops, their stores, have been destroyed
and, deprived OF the earnings and savings
of their past life, they have been COM
PEELED to seek other territories. The pro-
cess was gradual, hence the exodus ex.
cited no public attention or concern. Does
Mr.. Mcclure pretend to claim that it is in
the enjoyment of proper right that the
hydraulic companies have thus despolied
and driven from their property near 8, GOO
people? Can he claim that our system OF
rights, created by the Government, is so
unjust that it provides for and sanctions
such an outrageous injury? Can Mr..
Mcclure deny that this injury has
been done, and this injustice worked
w
Justice +? How can he reconcile 1t with
any just or fair elements in the claims
of the hydraulic companies? lis ne not
staggered by the attempt II he ignores
this injury he merely convicts himself oil
palpable intention to suppress facts and to
mislead the public, and of an unscrupulous
and venal purpose under pretense OF
righteousness. But becarse these compa-
MES have knowingly prepared to prosecute
a wrong for their own advantage, because
they have knowingly laid out few miilion
dollars, for which they can realize no profit
otherwise, must they be permitted to real
ize the profit from the contemplated
wrong? Is it not right that they De COM
PEELED to change their process OF mining,
even at a loss they have invited, for tins
is all there is at issue? Can such conpa-
pies. by the mere fact of an irrecoverabIe
outlay for the purpose become entitled to
prosecute wrong, to destroy the property
Of others? Since 1878 the destroyed area
has immensely extended. All the Nicolaus
country is involved Now full 100, GOO
acres are withdrawn from production.
Marysviile cannot stand more than one or
two winters. Lsyees will not defend her.
Does Mr. Mcclure deny that in the course
of the coming or the succeeding winter, II
hy draulic operations continue, that her
streets and buildings will be filled by from
eight to twelve feet OF sand and her site
abandoned? Does he consider that the
hydraulic companies have right incl
dentally to destroy city of 5000 inhab-
itants?
EXAMINING THE VARIOUS ASSERTIONS
In Mr.. McClure's argument, it is clear that
he has gone wide of now indisputable facts.
When he says 1T is true that lands are
covered but the land so covered
makes good and productive soil, in most
cases better than the original, does he
mean to convict Mr.. Hail. of misrepresenta-
tion when he states in his report that 81
80 acres have been reduced from an aver
ace value of from $40 to 500 an acre to 80
cents an acre? When Mr.. Mcclure as
serts that the destruction of the navlgable
rivers is impossible, does he not again
make an assertion at variance with facts
established beyond controversy? Does he
reflect that Mr.. Hall found the bed of the
Sacramento river filed from the mouth of
the Feather to the water front of Sacra.
mento city to the depth OF fifteen feet, and
from that city down to the very head OF
Suisun Bay to depth of ten feet? Does
he not know that between the years 1900
and 1860 such steamers as the Confidence
and Wilson G. Hunt, ocean steamers that
had come around the Horn from New
York. piled up and down from San Fran
cisco to Sacramento engaged in the freight
and passenger traffic, with as much ease as
they could have navlgated the Mississippi;
that steamers like the Capitol, of
600 tons burden. and the Chrys-
opolis, of l.l00 tons, drawing
from six to sixteen feet Of water were en-.
gagged in the same trade, and found it more
profitable than did smaller craft. Does he
not know that now only small fat-bot-
toned stern wheel steamers of from eighteen
inches to three feet draft can ascend the
Sacramento, and that according to Cap.
tains Roberts, Enos Fourat and others they
feel the suction of the bottom the entire
distance, and only ascend with difficulty
But the Sacramento river system is of vital
value to the rich area of the Sacramento
valley above Sacramento city for other
purposes. 1t is line of drainage that
draws off floods that would otherwise over
top the levees about Colusa and Tehama,
and then stand great lake upon The wheat
fields of Colusa, Butte and Tehama coun-
ties, leaving the grain fields late in the
spring great rivers, to turn, further on in
the season, into fruitless, sodden plains.
When the fall in the Sacramento river in
its long course in the valley is only four
inches to the mile, is it not of ominous
import to those counties that barrier of
sand is thrown across the Sacramento river
and the tule basins on either side be-
tween the mouths of the Feather and
Anne .ican, distance of nineteen miles,
fifteen feet in depth in the river channel,
and that the capacity of the river opposite
the city is only equal to one.third OF the
winter floods it formerly accommodated
Mr.. Mcclure says that mo damage has
been done to
SAN FRANCISCO BAY,
Nor is there any possibility of it ever being
done" Investigations have proved that
the mud flats of the bay are almost entire
ly caused by agricultural disturbances Of
the SOIL" Does he mean such investiga-
tions as those Of Mr.. O'Brien at the mouth
of and up Petaluma creek? Admitting
that perhaps one.half OF the matter now
being lodged in the bay comes from the
loose hillaides around, yet does not Mr..
Mcclure ignore the report of Mr.. Hail that
in the year 1878 8, Is, 100, 600 cubic yards
of material were carried in suspension by
the water going into the Sacramento, and
that only 1900, 900 cubic yards were ma
tural wash, while Is, 200, coo cubic yards
were, in the words of Mr. Hall. due
directly to mining operations" and finally
that only 2,l00,00 cubic yards escaped
into the basin, l6, 900. 600 being carried by
the water to its destination. Does he not
know that the steamboat captains, Roberts,
Fourat, and others. testified that they had
noticed rapid filling in the bay cotempo-
raneous with the development of hydraulic
mining that in San Pablo bay there were
eleven or twelve fathoms in 1860, where
now there are six and that the filling con-
Times to San Francisco nav until now at