Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-07-21
THE MOST IMPERISHABLE MONU.
MENT OF INDUSTRY.
posed State ReformatOry-In-
exhausiible Quarries


inspiration. Engineering feats of the kind
contemplated by the Folsom Water Power
Company give California better advertise
ment, and do more 10 attract capital hi,her
than any other form OF enterprise it is pos
sible to name. Temples may be over
thrown and colosseums tumble into dust,
but canals and aqueducts are among the
most imperishable monuments of industry
which it is within the power of man to
, erect. To this day the aqueducts of the
Romans are the best preserved of the vari-
Gus momentos left behind by that ancient
people. Canals and aqueducts have this
special claim to recommend them-that,
being practically indestructible, successive
generations of mankind reap as much or
more benefit from their utility as the peo-
pie who exhumed them themselves Archi-
| lecture may decline and its masterpieces be
eroded by time, but artificial waterways
constitute the most useful and durable of
legacies by which grateful posterity may
remember its benefactors.
TEXTILE INDUSTRIES.
AS yet the textileindustries of California
amount to very little. There is a mill here
and there, but practically the output of our
domestic looms is inappreciable and for
supplies of cloths and carpets we are largely
| dependent on the importations from for
eign countries. The very isolation of the
| few factories we have, points to the conclu.
sion that On this Pacific cUast there is no
recognized home of the industry, such as
Lowell in Massachusetts and Bradford in
England. The textile industry differs from
all others in this: that it must have local
habitation where the principal factories
composing it are united by easy distance,
| and where marriage among the operatives
of the adjacent mills produces generation
inheriting all the acquired skill and deft-
ness of their parents. These remarks ap-
| ply with almost equal force to the paper in
dustry, which in its higher branches seeks
company, truth illustrated by the fact that
three parts of all the paper manufactured
| by Great Britain comes from the score or so
of factories which line the Midway. For
| these the kentish stream is literally a
nourishing mother the constancy of whose
current is the milk of their existence.
| There is no reason why these twin indus
tries should not be made. to flourish on the
banks of the American river with all the
success which has attended their introduc-
ton into older countries. Where constancy
of pressure is desideratum, as in the case
of paper making, water has advantages over
| steam. The force which the latter exerts
is in variable quantity, fatal objection to
its application where the turning of highly
sensitive and delicate machinery is con-
cerned. Manufactures in California, which
at present are almost stified in their growth
by Eastern and foreign competition, would
by the completion of the canal be stimu-
lated into new life, and the novel spectacle
would be afforded of the shuttle competing
with the scythe for the honor of making
this State the richest in the Union.
THE LOCAL AND IMMEDIATE BENEFITS
To be reaped from the completion of the
canal are even more patent than the re-
mote advantages which we have been
citing. By its aid, the prison could
be made autonomous and self supporting
TO an extent approached by no other peni-
Tertiary in the United States As the rec
objection OF pioneer days grows fainter, and
the prosperity of the State more assured
| the substitution of stone ediices for tempo
rary ones of brick and stucco, will be
among the first wants of the community
which ii will be within the power of the
prison to satisfy with an inexhaustible
supply of granite, and with appropriate
| means to work the same; from the quarry
OF Folsom could be hewn the blocks for
the most princely Federal building this
side of Chicago. That a structure of this
kind is wanted is apparent to all, and if
| Sacramento should be determined on as its
site, then it is reasonable TO assume that
the proximity of the Folsom quarries will
recommend them as being the appropri-
ate basis of supply.
The crying need for the erection of
State reformatory for boys has found ex-
preston in every journal published in this
State, which has the interests of the Juvenile
community at heart. Cities are wholly IN
suitable for institutions of this kind. which
in the country enj Joy fresh air and condi-
tons it is impossible to secure in the towns.
AT present there is nothing of the nature
of juvenile reformatory in the State, IN
less we include the Industrial School,
owned and controlled by the county of San
Francisco. That the latter is not reforma-
tory at all, but on the contrary mere fore
ing house for criminals, is well known to
the urban police and magistracy, and is
thus reflected on by Mr.. Wines in the april
number of the International Record: l
was disguised with the institution, which
does not appear to possess a single feature
that ought to attach to it, except that some
of the boys have been organized into a
brass band The title of the establishment
is misnomer, and anything more dreary
and forlorn than the life of the boys here
can scarcely be imagined" Even if the
industrial School at San Francisco was
properly conducted,
THE WANT OF STATE INSTITUTE
OF this kind, but run very differently,
would still be experienced. The prison
domain offers a suitable site for the erection
of Bows Home of such proportions that it
will afford asylum for all the destitute boys
of the State who may be committed to it.
The material for its erection lies close at
hand in the Folsom quarry; the labor for
the same could be furnished by convicts,
! 7 l. tloe
of our youth at heart would grudge the
making of an appropriation sufficient to
cover the cost of furnishing it. The latter's
proximity to the State Penitentiary would
not in any way initiate against the site, the
inmates of both institutions being as prac-
tically isolated as if they were hundreds of
miles apart.
Irrigated by means of the canal, the land
adjacent to the projected reformatory could
be brought under a very high slate OF cui-
ture and the boys trained in husbandry
and those peaceful arts the acquaintance
with which makes honest men and valued
citizens.
A form of wealth exists at the prison
the value of which is liable to none of
those fluctuations which affect artificial
merchandise or even raw products like jnte
and cotton. Stone has always value
which increases with the community's
growth, and which is never in bad taste or
out of fashion. The dressing of it incul-
Gates lessons of thoroughness and persever
ance as the preparation OF no other material
does, and the man who is taught the trade
in prison will be in no hurry to steal when
he can earn 81 day by the lawful exercise
of his craft outside.
In conclusion, the best interests of the
State demand the speedy completion of the
canal and the utilization of all the wealth
which, whether hidden in the bowels of
hills or exposed on their slopes, form the
natural dowry of Folsom. NJ.
Folsom, July 10, 1888.
SUPERIOR COURT.