Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-04-19
REASONS FOR COLONY ORGANIZATIONS

REASONS FOR COLONY ORGANIZATIONS
If rich gold discovery should be
reported this morning near to Sacramento,
before night there would be 4 grand rush
10 the locality of hundreds that would
swell to thousands before the end of
the week, and the vicinity by that
time would be plastered all over with
staked-out claims, while unlimited capital
would be offering for the development of
the region. Yet the planting of colonies
In the vicinity of Sacramento would be of
far greater value to it than half-dozen
gold mines, and a score of miles of paving
placer diggings. The latter would have
an end; the prosperity they would stimu-
late would not be permanent, nor would
their product contribute to the material
welfare of the place so well or so much. in
the end, as the location OF five or six
hundred families upon desirable lands near
the city. One great reason for the sue
cess of colony schemes resides in the fact
that colonists select their company. They
provide in their charter agreement for To-
cal regulations conservative of peace and
order. By cooperation they greatly re-
duce the cost of local improvements They
insure themselves comforts and convent
ences, protection and prosperity, by reason
of grouping and cooperation, that are Sc
cured only by trials, sacrifice and priva-
ton on the part of the individual settler
remote from the helpfulness of neighbors
and deprived of the sustaining influence of
society having a common interest. This
species OF cooperation by colonies has been
tried with complete success in recent years
In as old a country as Germany, but in the
States and Territories of the United States
the scheme has had its greatest success
notably so in Kansas, Colorado and CAL
itornia. There is just now the liveliest
inquiry being made by colony groups for
locations.bu in Sacramento there is paucity
of interest in the matter of securing any
OF these home-builders for this section.
sacramento capital ought to seize the
opportunity Of the present to lay ont
colony tracts, to prepare them for occu-
pancy and to invite to that occupancy a
thrifty, hardy class of producers and con-
sumers There is ample space, plenty of
land, unequalled facilities, the best of
promises at our doors for these ventures
Large land holdings are breaking up.
tracts heretofore held in large bodies are
being offered for subdivision, the capacity
OF the region for all general and large
degree of semi-tropical production has
been tested, and is no longer A matter of
conjecture or experiment. There ought
now to be formed, and within the body of
the citizenship of Sacramento, three or
four colony schemes, the lands be secured
wherever they offer and are desirable. the
surveys made, water introduced where
needed, the subdivisions laid off roadways
and avenues sequestered from private
holdings and guaranteed forever; reser
vations for pnblic uses sacredly made
and the schemes published abroad
From what is now K lown of inquiry being
made, of colony successes elsewhere. and
OF the capacity of our immediate sec
ton, we believe that within single wear
with but comparatively little advancement
OF capital, and that in small lots. ard from
many investors, there can be located within
radius of from ten to twenty miles of
this city four or five, perhaps more. large
colonies of most desirable people, who will
come with some means. with the intention
of permanency, and so composed as to add
to the best class of citizenship. As mere
investments there can be no serious. f any
risk taken by companies so forming,
Whenever large tract is taken by a
colony company and subdivided, there is
appreciation of the land values from that
very fact. So soon as one colony islocated
aud fairly filled with settlers, all near
Colony lands will still more enhance in
value, and the effort to secure home Ioca-
lions upon them be made more easy. No
argument is needed to convince the busi-
ness man of the desirability of increasing
the industrial population upon the agri-
cultural lands of the Sacramento section.
Ii the colony formation returned no profit
upon the capital required, it would
still be of vast benefit to every in
vsstor in the increased imnort-
ance colony settlements would Give
t. Sacramento in a business point of
view. We have all preached for wears If
the injury resulting to this city from one
very large land-holding ON the north that
Is barrier to the growth of the CITY. and
thousands of business forecasts have been
mlde of great beneicent results if only
that tract could be subdiyided. But no
vigorous effort to secure that result has
been made. The very fact that this reser-
yation has so long been withheld from
sm Ill settlement by home-builders ought
t, incite Sacramentans TO look in other
d rections east, north and south of the city |
for colony locations, to which newcomers |
ny be invited. The towns in California |
that in the next two or three years secure |
the nucleus of colony settlements in their |
vicinity will most profit by it, and their