Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-05-09
AN EXAMPLE.

AN EXAMPLE
The production of commercial borax
from the natural beds in the State of
Nevada is a large and constantly expand
ing industry. The Territorial Enterprise of
Virginia on several occasions has pub
lished the statistics of the industry, and no
journal is better qualified to give them
correctly. 1t is unnecessary to reproduce
its fgures-the conclusion reached by
that journal is that the protective tariff is
all that saves this Nevada industry
The California output of borax is very
great, and will, if not crushed by tariff
tampering, be further greatly enlarged.
Nevada, however, has even greater borax
deposits than California, and the two
probably have enough Of the article to
respond to the worlds demand for an in
definite period. At least the need for i'm
portation is at an end under protective
tariff rate of three cents per pound. The
borax found in California is distinguished
by all the excellencies that mark the pro-
duct Of Thibet, heretofore the best standard
for the mineral. Unfortunately the latest
statistical reports and Custom-house re-
turns, as published by the Federal Gov
eminent, do not detail the borax yield and
import, but the gross amount of the yield
is very great, and precisely as it has de-
veloped the import has fallen off. To put
borax upon the free list will, therefore
restore the old order of things, when it
sold for So cents and 40 cents a pound,
while Pacific coast discoveries have re-
duced the price to six and seven cents.
The San Francisco Bulletin puts the borax
receipts at that city for 1887 at 1911 800
pounds, while the total exports of the pro-
duct from California during that year was
100000 pounds, and was valued at
S6l7 900. The first discovery of borax in
California in great quantity was made in
in 1856, and in 1864 Borax Lake, near
Clear Lake, was first worked for CONNER
| cial purposes. Soon after q second lake
was discovered near by. In years time
! the product controlled the market in the
United States, and reduced the importa-
ton to a very small figure, less than $4,000
in value There are not less than eight
counties in this State with borax deposits
fit to be worked, as we'll as severa,
localities where borate Of lime is obtaina
BILE. Professor Hanks, of San Francisco,
is reported by the Bulletin as placing the
production of borax in California and Ne
vada, for the twenty years up to 1884, at
not less than 100000 pounds. The
tariff rate was put upon the mineral by
Congress for the express purpose of de-
veloping by protecting home industry.
Under that protection it has grown in i'm
portarce until it has practically crowded
out the Asiatic and other product. The
proposition of the Democratic party is to
remove the protection.
With borax free-listed, the production of
the article would come to an abrupt end
ing in Nevada and California. Probably
William I. Coleman & Co., of San Fran
cisco, are better able to speak advisedly
upon the subject now than any one else.
The firm attributes its present financial
embarrassment in part to the fact that its
heavy investments in borax beds have
been rendered profitless by the threat of
the dominant party to free-list borax.
Under such COW they could neither sell
! out their interests nor proceed further with
their developments. This is a practical
example of the assault that will be made
upon very many California industries if
the Administration scheme of tariff scaling
down Is consummated, an end against
which the Republican party has set its
face, and by which agency only can the as
sault be averted If mere threat to tamper
with the tariff can have such a disastrous
effect in the case of one home product,
what, it may well be asked, will be the
result if the Democratic scheme is carried
out to It's intended fullness?
ONE of the physicians in the Lane
course of medical lectures in San Fran
cisco devoted his last weeks discourse to a
sensible and practical consideration of the
utility Of pain. He termed pain the con-
science of the body; it is therefore useful
as warning of threatened disease; it is
the protest of nature, and its absence in
some diseases is one of the most dangerous
OF symptoms, as in consumption, in which
so many are lulled into a false sense of
security. As sluggish natures are least
sensible to pain, so finely organized ana
nervous temperaments suffer under it most
keenly. 1t is therefore logical to reason
that the more sensible we are to pain the
more exquisite are our pleasures These
statements by the lecturer are simple
truths, which are not nearly so widely
understood as they should be. There would
be far less of human misery, and a great
deal less of the progress of physical dis
ease, if the philosophy of these truths was
clearer to human beings Instead of pain
being considered a cause for the fear that
aids the encroachment of disease. it
ought in the larger number of cases to be
welcomed as the indicator that the time
has arrived to remedy the superinduc-
ing cause. As the cry of distress calls the
humane to the rescue of suffering fellow.
so pain in seven cases out of ten should be
esteemed the friend of the body when it is
to be helped out of difficulty. The effort
to repress it, to still its voice without using
it as an index to the cause-though not
always direct one to the exact location
of the same-aud that the latter NAV be
treated and removed, is therefore always
an offense against ourselves. That the
lecturer did not follow up this line of
thought, so natural and reasonable, must
be attributed to the suggestiveness of the
topic in other directions.
'THp, apnoinfrnpDf rror,o+;n, aud to,,,,-.