Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-10-26

OtdAs GNCi las a COlilOlAdOi 1lOLAC
good clothes and sufficient food.
1t will be our aim in the college to give 6
practical education, to cultivate manual
dexterity, to open the range of inquiry ano
make the scholar rely on his own resources
l have already fitted up some machine
shops, and hope that the college will in
some measure fill the gap opened in oul
system of industry by the difficulty that
besets boy who wishes to learn me-
chanical art. Still that is not, by any
means, the extent of our aims. l want &c
teach the benefits and resources OF labor, &c
show he who has to work how to toll thai
he may easiest earn his needed rest ano
recreation. | want to unfold the possible
ties of enjoyment and show every industri-
GUS and provident man how he may secure
them without the expenditure of more
physical effort than is necessary for his
health. There will always be some in
equality; some men will be indolent, and
to that extent will the burdens Of the provi-
dent and industrious be increased, but
even the added burden of the idle and
vicious should not demand from the indus.
trious more labor than is compatible with
the highest intellectual enjoyment.
California, with her present system Of
industry, will well support 10000 GOO peo'
Die, WIFI IuC DSoJ StStCAnS hDOW 6ae
would support 100000, and l believe
that with the system that the genius Of
man will develop before many years have
passed the resources of the State would be
equal to the requirements of the greatest
and grandest empire the world has ever
seen. The soil-that fruitful mother that
supplies all our necessities-we have in
abundance, and as the evolution of the
last fifty years-the evolution from the
sick to the thla hing machine-has made
it possible for one man TO grow the food
tor thousand, l see no reason why the
next half censury should not show an
equal increase of capacity. A farmer in
this State has grown $50 bushels of wheat
to the acre in field of twenty acres. With
the best system of cultivation every wheat.
grower should be able to accomplish as
much
The last census gave US population OF
less than 10000 engaged in agriculture in
this State-or less than 10000 actual work
ers, for in this State women and children
do not work in the fields. These 10000
workers raised food for the whole popula-
ton of the State and had q surplus that
would feed 100000 people. That was
with a production that would average
about fifteen bushels to the acre. What
could not be done in the lowest was made
equal to the highest, and with the same
labor the average had been 100 bushels. In
the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys
it would be easy to quadruple the yield OF
grain with more perfect system of cultiva-
ton and irrigation. It is not now unusual
in the Sacramento valley to raise sixty
bushels to the acre. England goes abroad
for food supplies. Professor Wallace is au-
thority for the statement that if all her
available land was properly cultivated she
could raise more than she consumed. But
the cost of transportation is so small that it
pays better to go abroad for food than raise
it on poor soil. One had better buy his food
and raise something else. An abso-
lutely idle man might find it profitable
to spend q dollars worth of time in pro-
ducing a 25-cent article rather than spend
% cents he had in his pocket, but it would
nevertheless be an actual waste of 70 per
cent. of the labor. The most elementary
system of political economy Lays that down
as an axiom, but its truth is constantly dis
regarded by nations as well as individuals.
The natural advantages of California, the
ease with which a good living may be
earned here, will cause the population to
increase much faster in the future than it
has done in the past, because the facilities
of transportation have been greatly i'm
proved. As 100000 people fastened here
to enjoy the advantages of this State when
the only way to come was by OK team or
ship why should not ten times the num-
Der come, now that the passage only con-
sumes few days and costs less than an in
dustrious man can save in year even in
the poorly paid part of the old country
Steam has shortened the distance, land in
the East available for settlement is becom-
ing scarce, and besides, our system of cul-
tivation has so improved that we can offer
them inducements that we could not few
years ago. The railroads being built and
operated, every increase of freight and
travel lessons the cost per passenger or arti.
Gle. The greatest expense is for fixed
charges, and enough income being secured
to cover them, additional business can be
handled very cheaply. The actual cost OF
hauling train is small, while the expense
of keeping up the road is large. As popu-
lation and freight increase, rates can be
reduced Ten cars can be handled nearly
as cheaply as five, and it costs but little
more to go 125 miles than to go 80. A ton
of coal will suffice for 40 miles, and after
the wages of the crew are paid. the fixed
charges settled and maintenance prepared
for. the additional cost is only for fuel.
The scarcity of fuel is still a drawback to
this State A ton of coal can be put on the
cars in PENNSYLVANIA for 624 cents; here
we paw from 81 to $40. The coal we get
from Vancouver has to pay IS cents per
ton duty, which is excessive, in view OF
the fact that the plea for protection is to
keep wages up, and the wages paid for
handling ton of coal do not amount to
anything like rs cents. When coal only
costs % cents to mine in Pennsylvania, il
is hardly logical to charge three times as
much for the admission of foreign coal
here. That benefits the owner of coal
lands, and not the laborer who mines the
coal.
In estimating the future of California
great hopes are placed in the coming de-
yelopment of electricity as power When
means are found to produce electricity
without steam and save the waste of coal,
the great manufacturing problem of this
State will be solved. At present our
methods are so defective that most of the
coal is wasted. II goes up the chimney
aud into the atmosphere instead of heating
the water and making steam. Still. great
advances have been made in that direction
lately and we get more than twice as much
power from q ton of coal than we did
twenty years ago.
With the Increase of facilities for con-
trolling the forces of nature the bitter COM
petition for wealth will be lessened. Pow.
erty and want having been the rule instead
of the exception in the past, men struggle
and hoard; if all were assured of com.
Portable living and a sure competence fol
old age they would spend more freely, take
more enjoyment and fight less fiercely fol
wealth. Not that 1 depreciate industry and
providence, for it is the duty of man to earn
and save for his family and himself, but
hope for the day when labor and thrift will
no longer interfere with the intellectual de
yelopment and the enjoyment of social
pleasures. Mans actual needs are slight
his intellect boundless. Professor Agassil
would be satisfied with % cents worth o.
foad a day, but he needed steamboats, tC
help him read the story told by the bed o.
the ocean, instruments to solve the riddle
of the stars and glaciers, and unnumbereC
hands to delye amid the buried learning o.
the past. When he has mastered his study
it belongs to the whole world, and with 6
proper system of education ii is at the com
-,aoI Of avarC one