Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-11-03
CALIFORNIA THE BEST.
WHAT A sAcRAMENTAN SAW IN
CANADA AND THE EAST.
Prosperity Everywhere in the United
States, But Hard Times With
Canadian Producers.

A RECORD UNION reporter had an interest
ing interview yesterday with {. c. Croly, who
returned few days since from an extended
visit in the Eastern States and Canada. Mr..
Croly is q native of Toronto, and most of
his time was spent in that and other por-
tons of Canada. He left here on the 23d
Of July last, accompanied by Mrs Croly,
going by way of Oregon and Washington,
over the Northern Pacific Railroad to
Minneapolis. He found that sbe glowing
reports of the wonderful prosperity of the
Northwest were not greatly exaggerated.
Immigrants and capital have been flowing
into Oregon and Washington, and the
wilderness is being rapidly transformed
into homesteads, and dotted here and there
with enterprising, thriving cities.
Without much delay on the route, Mr..
Croly reached Minneapolis, the boom city
of Minnesota. He describes it as place
of great enterprise and marvellous growth.
The city is being rapidly extended in all
directions, and the buildings Of the best
character and OF modern style. OF the
business men of Minneapolis, however, he
has not the best opinion-they are decided
" ION the make" and as a rule, are not
over scrupulous as to their manner Of deal
ing with newcomers.
The chief products of Northern Mime
sofa are wheat and lumber, but at Mime
apolis capitalists are now erecting great
smelling works, where the ores Of some of
the Lake Superior mines will be reduced.
Some of the finest Touring mills in the
world are in operation there 1t is claimed
that South Dakota and Minnesota will
have so 600 000 bushels surplus of wheat
this year, most of which is exported in the
shape of -four.
Minnesota is very poor fruit country,
except that excellent apples are produced.
In the larger cities the people eat California
fruit.
Passing through Wisconsin, Mr.. Croly
found that about the same condition pre-
vailed as in Minnesota. Although there
are evidences of prosperity in the cities and
MANY farming districts, sill there is an air
of desolation about the once great pine
regions that for forty years had Yielded so
much revenue to that State. These old
time timber tracts are now dreary wastes
of stumps, and the lard is too poor to war
rant its being cleared for farming.
After making brief halt at Chicago, the
wonderfully progressive metropolis of the
great West, the tourists went 10 Cleveland.
1t was twenty-five years since Mr.. Croly
had been there, and the changes that had
been wrought in thai time were very great.
Cleveland is now great manufacturing
city of some 10000 people. In 1865 the
population was but 10000 The chief fuel
used IN the factories there is natural gas.
From Cleveland they went to Buffalo, n.
Y, and thence into Canada. Mr.. Croly
found that the latter country had improved,
in general way, but it had been at the
expense of the producing classes. Canada
is free trade couatry, and therefore the
farmers have all the world for competitors
On the other band, the great corporations,
railroads, manufactures, etc, are pro-
tected, but under system that places none
of the burden upon the shoulders of for.
eign traders. In order to build up and en-
courage manufacturing enterprises, the
latter are usully given a bonus by commu-
mites, free sites for buildings and an ex-
emption from taxation for long periods.
The General Government, too, pays
enormous subsidies to railroads, and in the
last twenty years the Government ipdebt-
edness has grown from S90,000000 to $780,
900, 600. There is not, says Mr.. Croly,
town of 600 inhabitants in the province of
Ontario that has not one or more subsi-
died corporations The people of Wood
stock, while he was there, induced an agri-
cultural implement company to remove its
factory from Toronto to that place by CIV
ing $4,000 in cash, free building site, and
exemption from taxes for fifty years. The
manufacturing business is booming, so to
speak, but other interests are suffering, as
the people who are not aided in this way
have to supply the taxes for all. The in
dustries that are protected" thrive, while
the others do not, and therein lies the diff
ference between practical protection in
GaneAa onh "a ITnito5 States which
Croly explained TO the Canadians, showing
that here all classes are protected.
Notwithstanding all the aid and encour-
agement given TO manufacturing in Canada,
the factories do not produce goods of equal
quality with those of this country, although
labor is much cheaper there than here.
To show the difference between the
wages paid in free trade Canada and this
country, Mr.. Croly said he had nephew
employed as a carriage worker in Toronto,
one of the best skilled workmen in his line.
He received % cents day more than the
average workman, and his best wages were
81 80 day. Here the same class of skilled
labor would command from So IS to 81
day. There tailors receive 81 25 per day
(women so cents), while here tailors are
paid from So to 81, and yet the comforts
and necessaries of life are as cheap here as
there.
The credit system prevails in Canada,
and its ill effects are apparent Oh every
hand. There is very little money in cir.
culation. The manufacturers and dealers
take the notes of the farmers in exchange
for goods, but the farmer must also give
cha;tel mortgage. He pays 6 or per
cent. interest and generally defaults by the
time his debt is half paid, and his creditors
get all he had paid in and his persynal
property, or good share of it. The tar
mers of Canada not only have not i'm
proved under Canadian free trade in the
last twenty-five years, but have actually
retrograded.
The cities, Mr.. Croly says, have Jared
better than the country. In Toronto there
are two streets with asphalt pavement
This style of pavement costs s. square
yard there, and the granite curbing is more
expensive than mere, as it has to be sunk
below the ffcst-iDe.
Cement sidewalks there cost Is cents per
square foot here il costs from Is TO IS
There the beat OF skilled labor for that class
of work is had for from 81 to g day; here
the same class Of labor brings from s. to So.
Cement there costs So 10 per barrel; here it
costs 81 25 Gravel is cheaper there.
Hence il will be seen that here in Sacra-
mento, where skilled labor is paid three
times as much as in Toronto, and where
the material is dearer, cement sidewalks
really cost less than they do there. One
reason is that, owing to the climate there,
the cement has to be laid heavier than here.
Mr. Croly severely criticised the manner
in which railroads are run in Ontario.
Nearly all the easy positions on the roads
are held by young Englishmen, sent out
by relatives who own stock in the roads.
They are generally pompous, autocratic,
uncivil to strangers and incompetent. Mr..
Croly was so struck by the marked con-
trast between the manner of their operation
and that of American roads, that he wrote
an article on the subject, which was pub
lished in one of the leading Toronto jour-
nails and created quite stir in Canadian
railroad circles. Copies were even sent to
stockholders in England.
These young Englishmen have practi-
cally run the native youths out of Canada
at least those with energy and snap, and
who wish TO get up in the world. This
class generally go to the United States,
where they have a chance to do something.
As sOnn aS one CROSSES the limo from free.