Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-02-13

a place for many but, in reality, ware
houses more often are repositories for q
| single shipper"
Referring to how much the Government
had saved upon its expenses by the advan-
tageous bargain it made with the Pacific
| railroads, Mr.. Stanford said that before the
railroad was opened the Government paid
81, 100000 per year to have the mails carried
across the plains in the boot of stage, and
they required eighteen days. Now the
| Government took up very large space oi
| the cars, and sent hundreds of tons of mail
matter. and they paid about S400, 900. and
| divided it between two railroads. The same
amount of service as before, with the dis
parity of time, would make the Government
expenses at the present day millions OF
dollars
THE MORMON QUESTION.
Said I " Mr.. Stanford, what is your idea
about the Mormon question ?n
| The Mormons nave served useful pur-
! pose in. this country, and they have their
virtues. | had talk with John TAYLOR
their President, and some of their leading
men not long ago, and | told them that
/ they would have to get rid of polygamy
that it was against the prejudices of our
! people and their example. and that we were
all persuaded that one wife was all that one
man could afford to support, and that
| while / sympathized with them for their
| frugality and hardships, they must stop
this practice, lest some injury overtake
them. The Edmunds bill bears hard upon
| families which have existed in the past
Here is Mormon with two or three fami-
| lies, snd he must go to Jail if he lives in
polygamy: whereas the public opinion OF
his own community considers him coward
| if he abandons either of his families. l dc
not think they are making polygamous
marriages out there now, and there should
have been consideration made for the old
| families already established But this mat
| ter becomes largest at a distance In my
opinion polygamy will die outif left to nat
ural causes"
SILVER AND GOLD.
| Said [: Governor, is the destiny of
San Francisco and of California as appar-
ent now as it seemed 10 you twenty years
ago?''
. think it is. San Francisco has about
| three hundred thousand inhabitants. That
| is an exceedingly large city for the time
| Americans have possessed it. California
has growth steady, and, compared to
most other places, remarkable. The agri-
culture of the country is coming forward,
and the soil much surpasseS the best in the
old States. An acre of California land will
produce twice as much as an acre in the
Mohawk Valley. Two years ago we raised
all the wheat in California we needed for
ourselves, and shipped away enough to
feed ten million people besides. The min
ing development of the State is not as
sporadic as it was, but it is very large. The
gold yield aggregates well. | have owned
some mines, and in one of the mines l
have we make it profitable when we get 81
of metal out of a ton of the quartz. In
deed. quartz mining is probably in better
condition in California than it has been for
a good while. The great interest of
the new West, excepting California
and Utah, is. first, the mines, and
next cattle. Now, in California we
probably find more than 125,OOO
persons engaged in agriculture. and that is
larger proportion than anywhere west of
the Rocky Mountains, possibly excepting
Utah. Hence the mining interest is i'm
portant to be supported, and that is why,
upon the silver question, | am for the con-
tinued coinage of silver. There is no suf-
ficient reason in good morals or political
economy to discontinue it at the expense
of the industry engaged in it. Suppose we
had been coming S25, 100000 of silver per
annum for years before our civil war; and
it had been disbursed among our people
do you suppose that there would have
been such depression of the currency as
happened with paper? 1t must have
been disparaged somewhat, bat as q large
proportion of the world has always used
it, and always will Use it. the deprecia-
ton would have been comparatively
small In the Pacific States we main
tanned gold and silver as our currency
during the war; but if we had undertaken
to deinonetize silver at the expense
of the gold the public tradition would
have repudiated us. We manufactured
in the rest OF the country, paper, and put
the Government stamp on ii, and ii sunk in
value until it was not worth half the prom
Use on its face. If silver was deprecated 20
per cent, it still should have a much
greater buying power than the greenback
gave US. Therefore, | say that if you
coin silver and let it remain among the
people of your country, as it generally
Will, you are provided in time of panic or
battle with money that will not depreciate
beyond certain point. A Senator said 10
me not long ago that he hoped | was not in
favor Of silver. | told him | did not see
any sufficient reason to be against silver
none He replied it was such terribly
heavy thing TO carry. Now. said | to
him, i venture 10 say that you have not a
gold piece in your pocket He admitted
he had not, but he had a number OF silver
dollars and half dollars: Said to him
also You will probably go over this Sen
ate and not be able to raise $50 in gold, and
it is the same everywhere. Silver is the
favorte coin of the great multitude of man
kind
''I like to feel said Mr. Stanford, that
have got some money in my pocket, and
silver makes that impression in every
body's pocket. Your national wealth, if
silver continues to be coined, will aggregate
better than you know While the savings
banks of the United States show very many
millions of dollars put aside by the poor,
| there must be much more money put away
| in stockings and other places by the saving
poor. Silver is what they hoard and not
gold"
Said |: Should not there be more
| grains put into our silver coins if they seem
| to have deprecated p
Yes, there ought to be enough more
grains put in to diminish the tendency OF
exchanges to make a profit by buying sill
yer at one price and putting it on the peo-
pie at another. You see that if a counter
feiter could get the Government stamps
and put them on good metal of the present
! number of grains he could still sell them
at profit over the bars of silver out OF
which he made them. That opportunity
ought not to be afforded him by the people,
Governor, when is the railroad to be
1 DttMttt NdlltOEDld anu OIeSOH
:. That depends somewhat upon what as.
sistance the railroads in Oregon get, which
are in bankrupt condition. The Govern
meEt authorized two railroads to come for,
ward and meet each other, one from Oregon
and one from California. They are SO Grip
pied up in Oregon about their railroad
| finances that they are not making much
progress. 1t is some 600 miles to be Gov
cred by the railroads, and the natural i'm.
pedimenls are very great.
| CONGRESSIONAL STUPIDITY.
i Referring to naval matters Mr.. Stanford
said There is a single vessel on the Pa
cifc ocean. the Esmeralda, belonging tc
Chile, which could stand outside of San
Francisco at Seal Rock and force the city
to be surrendered. 1t seems to me to bt
most unwise for our people to lay them
selves open to such contingencies, wher
very small amounts of money would
supply us with ships to protect these
large ports. The United States now