Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-11-08
REVIvING VAIN HOPES.

REvIvING VAIN HOPES.
The Nevada Herald, under the heading
ave Are Poor" INDUCES itself in long
editorial, suggesting the resumption OF
hydraulic mining. or at least such legisla-
ton in Legislature and Congress as will
give legal sanction to experimenting to
determine if that kind of mining cannot be
carried on within the law. as interpreted
by the Courts Its plan is to have all
the miners unite to bring pressure to bear
on political lines, and simultaneously on
commercial lines. The latter is to be
effected by agreement of the mining sec
tions to import goods direct, and refuse to
job with houses in California until they
protest in favor of hydraulic mining. The
Herald asserts that the great wealth of
the Sierra mining belts has as yet been
only touched. That beneath the noun
tains are untold millions that, without
the aid of outside capital, can only be
proftably washed from the shining sands
by the hydraulic process. With all this
wealth beneath their feet the people, it
reiterates, are "poor, very poor, because
narrow and short-sighted policy" has
been pursued, and the Courts have de-
clared hydraulic mining that sends debris
down to the rivers and valley to be a
nuisance. The whole article is piteous
moan, beneath which is threat that is
grim and sincere. How far the Herald
represents the sentiment of the hydraulic
mining regions in this matter we do not
know. 1t probably represents very con-
siderable thought in the direction indi-
Gated. No one in the valley wishes i'll to
our neighbors of the mountains. That they
are poor excites commiseration, but that
their case is pitiful is no reason whatever
for forgetting or ignoring the rights of
others who have also been made poor by
hydraulic mining. If our contemporaries
constituents have been made poor by the
cessation of the hydraulic mining process,
so have the people of the river sections by
its long continuance. Taxes, by reason of
it, ran up to destructive figures, and be-
came intolerable burdens; property was
utterly destroyed and vast tracts covered
by mining wash real estate in towns and
cities deprecated in value because of the
threat of flood from rivers raised bodily by
the filling of the streams. A commerce
on navigable streams, once of vast proper
tions sank to mere shadow of itself and
degenerated into a fat-boat trade of.very
limited extent. Great natural drains of the
valley were filled and the water diverted
over adjacent lands; industries were
checked, manufacturing stopped, trade in
iured, homes destroyed, agriculture made
extra hazardous, and the whole river sec
ton set back a decade in the march of
progress. So there were and are two
sides to the story. Of what profit is it,
then, to revive these issues now? What
good does the Herald hope for from such a
policy? Let the people of the mountains
understand that the right thing to do is to
unite with those of the valley in develop
ing the resources of the country that are not
under the ban of the law. Let them aid
and stimulate all manner of mining
that does not do harm to others.
Let them join with the people
of the plains and foothills in
inviting to our section desirable immigra-
ton. Let them abandon the idea that the
hydraulic section is good for nothing else.
1t is gross error. They have not begun to
test the capacity of that region in other
industrial and productive directions. They
do not yet know of the wealth that is pos
sible to be developed in the mountains
without washing the hills into the
rivers. Let them devote half as much
energy to developing the full possibilities
of their counties as they gave to hydraulic
mining, and they will, we sincerely be-
lieve, be astonished at the result. There
is no hatred of them in the valley, but de-
termination that hydraulic mining must
not be resumed. We look upon such APP
peals as that of the Herald as damaging to
the very people in whose interest they as
sumo to be made. The Herald should
so advise its people, for it knows
there is no hope for hydraulick-
ing. Let it advise them, and with an
energy that will carry conviction, that the
mountains are yet to be developed, that the
resources of the mining regions are of i'm
measurable worth outside Of hydraulic
mining, and that the one thing to do is to
turn all local energies in the direction of
developing them.
II is gratifying TO learn that the propo-
sition to establish here permanent exhi-
bition in connection with the movement
to promote the settlement of Central and
northern California meets with favor from
our citizens generally. The verdict of adj
visibility being rendered, action is the
next thing. The. old adage with regard
to striking while the iron is hot applies in
this case. We trust that the idea will be
made material by further initiatory steps
to supplement those already taken, and