Sacramento daily record-union., 1888-12-15
SOME PLAIN TALK.
A SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA PAPER
TELLS POINTED TRUTHS.
Frank Confession and Wholesome
Advice by an Honest and
Brave Editor

The San Bernardino Daily Inder OF
December 7th contains the following
pointed, honest and comprehensive state
ment of facts concerning the foolish sec
tional expressions and methods INDUCED
by portion of the press and people of that
part of the State to prevent the flow of inl-
migration from being turned from that
part Of the State to the central and north
ern portion:
The fact that people are being daily di-
verted from South California TO Northern
| California, and that Northern and Central
California are enjoying decided boom,
with thousands of strangers and settlers
pouring in there, while South California
is getting the go bye" right straight
along, is attracting much attention, and all
sorts of reasons are being advanced for the
situation. And the situation seems des-
tined to continue, for, when the people in
terested are told what is the matter, they
refuse 10 listen, and deliberately blind
themselves to palpable facts.
| The real facts are that the people of
Southern California hold their property
| too high, and their rents are too high
Those who are divertlng the stream of
immigration from our doors know this
and they make the most of it. What do
our people do to meet it? Why our news
papers declare that the representatives of
Northern and Central California are lying
about Southern California. That is all
that is done. There is hardly day passes
that some of the Los Angeles papers do
not wax indignant at the lies the runners
for Northern and Central California tell
about South California. If they were
lies it would do but little harm. But the
fact is their assertions are the truth.
A representative of Northern or Central
California tells party looking about that
rents are cheaper farther north, and when
the tenderfoot gets there he finds it true.
The writer pays $50 a month for suite of
rooms in San Bernardino. He has paid
only SIS for a better suite in San Fran
cisco, only $50 for better in Sacramento,
and only $15 for one as good in Woodland
while he knows by observation while visit
ing those places that in Oakland and San
Jose the same rates of prices range.
1t is not going to do to tell an Eastern
visitor that the people of the North are
lying about Us. As soon as he gets there
he finds that it is the people of South Cal
fornia who are doing the lying. 1t is the
same way in the price lands. They are Of
fered much cheaper in the northern and
central parts of the State. 1t don't do to
say that they are lying, for the printed
price lists show they are not. So we resort
to singing such siren songs as the follow
ing, taken from the Riverside Enterprise:
THE claim is made that a large percent
age of the Immigrants coming to this coast
now are people with small means, who
wish to make their capital reach as far as
it will, and are consequently heading for
Tulare and neighboring counties to invest
because the land there is still sold at much
more reasonable figures than here Il
these deluded people could be shown the
difference in the value of the land in the
sections to which they are going and
the land we have here, few would
go there; but right here is the diff.
Guilty; many think that California land
is California land and Just alike every
where; they do not know that it requires
from five to ten times as much land in the
section spoken of for the man to make a
living from as it does here; this then
should be shown to these people by all
honorable means, and it should be seen to
that these people have it all explained
that while they are obliged to pay $500
per acre for land here, ten acres is an
abundance to make frst-class living from
and it is cheaper property for them to buy,
than to pay $50 an acre for land when it is
next to impossible to make living from
fifty acres of it."
The foregoing is simply another case of
lying on the part of South California.
There is no difference in the value OF
lands between the sections. The soil and
climate are very much the same, and in
Northern and Central California there are
thousands of acres of land on any ten
acres of which Just as good living can be
made as on any ten acres in South Califor-
: MIA. The writer can recall the Capay and
Berryessa valleys in Yolo county, the Mo-
raga, Sunol and Livermore valleys in Ala
media county, another Berryessa valley in
Santa Clara county, the Sonoma valley,
the entire lower foothill region of Placer,
Sacramento, Yuba and Butte counties,
through all of which he has travelled ex-
tensively and frequently. The ramifcation
of many branch roads of the railway sys-
TEN of that part of the State have opened
many of these valleys to settlement within
the past year, and just as good land can be
had there for $50 or 500 per acre as San
Bernardino and Los Angeles people ask
$50 to $500 per acre for. 1t will raise
anything that can be raised here, of as
good quality and in as great quantities.
There is no use in binding our eyes to
the facts above related. The people of
South California are deceiving no one else
but themselves. When they tell Eastern
people that the northern and central parts
of the State cannot offer Just as good land
as they have, and that more can be got off
from ten acres here than from fifty there
they are simply lying and the tenderfeet
have begun to find it out And when
month for rooms they can get in towns and
cities farther north for SIS and $40 they
are going north to stay. What is to be
done? Why, bring our prices down to
reasonable figures and quit crying about
the North lying about US, and quit lying
about the North. When a tenderfoot
stops here don't drive him away by charg-
ing him double for room what he will
have to pay for lodging fully as good in
Sacramento, Oakland or San Francisco.
When he wants to buy land ask him a
price that will compete with the same
qualities of land in Sunol, Livermore or
Capay valleys. Don't lie to him by assert
ing that he can do better with ten acres
here than he can with fifty there. He
will find you are lying and will keep other
people away by telling them so.
If the people of South California expect
any business this year, they want to begin
to get it by being honest with themselves.
Then they will be honest with other peo-
pie, and will get their share of the immi-
grafton coming.