Sacramento daily record-union., 1890-04-18
LOOKING At The STATE.
HIS WILL BE A GREAT AND GOLDEN
YEAR FOR CALIFORNIA.
Development of Transportation Facili-
ties-The People of Different Sec
tions to MiDgle More.

The San Francisco Aha of yesterday con-
tained the following thoughtful editorial:
The last railroad map of California is
quite a surprise to people who have not
remembered the casual notices in the press
OF the extension of railroad lines. Califor-
MIA was never so easy to travel over as now.
and 1t IS expected that the Southern Pacific
Company is about to actively continue its
policy OF extending lines to regions that
are capable of development by transporta-
ton facilities. w. II. Mills has suggested
to the State Board of Trade the benefit of
excursion travel between different localities
in the State, giving Californians chance
to look at their own State We have long
been of the belief that the Sacramento val
ley, north of a line drawn east and west
through Woodland, would be urged to en-
terprise and to breathe and move like a
living thing if men could be persuaded to
inspect what has been done in the San
Joaquin valley from Lodi south to Bakers
field. The town of Fresno alone has in it
as much inspiration toward material i'm
provement as the voice of the prophets of
old had in the direction of enrichment of
the spirit.
This Is to be great year, golden year
for this State. Authoritative advices from
every leading fruit district in the East are
to the effect that cherries and peaches will
average there only one-tenth of full crop.
What this implies for our great variety of
excellent shipping fruits every planter
knows. The demand will greatly promote
new plantations, and the place to locate
these will be sought in new regions en-
tirely, and that means an inducement to
new lines of railroad to bring the product
to market. President Huntington and
raiIrnaI hor
tour of some of the developed areas al
ready penetrated by rail, and accepted as a
revelation the fact that in Vaca valley 100
acres now supplies as much tonnage for
lail shipment as the whole valley did be-
fore its transformation and the transfigura-
ton of its industries. This means the
other fact that $50 acres there now Yields
as much profit to its owners and EMPLOYS
as much labor as the whole valley did
under its old form.
These are stupendous facts, but they are
facts which thousands of Californ;ans have
yet TO learn by actual inspection. Eastern
people came in contact with such facts in
Southern California and that accounts for
SO many of them being practically swept off
their feet in that part of the State. What
they saw and knew was in such vivid con-
trast to what they had experienced in the
East that their prudence vanished. With.
Out generating boom, which is most un-
desirable, the railroad people, the Boards of
Trade and local industrial organizations of
all sorts should promote an interchange of
visits between distant communities all over
the State. That excellent organization the
Grange, or the Patrons of Husbandry, has
been quietly serving the material fortunes
of the State in this way for many years.
Its various meetings held every year and
its annual picnics have brought strangers
together who parted as friends. Primarily
devised for social intercourse, these assem-.
blies have spread knowledge of the State
amongst lis fine rural people.
A good place to make beginning would
be with the Chamber of Commerce in this
city. 1t would be we'll for our great mer-
chants and our great farmers, aisin-plant-
ers and fruit growers % meet and mingle
in the country. Each class now trusts
largely to the press for its knowledge of
the other. Contact in the country, in
places where orchards and vineyards, fields
and farms, irrigation works, completed or
progressing are to be seen, would be of
great benefit. San Francisco has taken the
tide of commerce that flows down from the
valleys and foothills of the State, and be-
tween source and destination there has
been but little acquaintance. We know
LJul tOI lis uielOUs, FRESNO IOT 1tS TdlSlnS,
Vaca valley for its stone fruits, Napa, So
noma and Russian river for their wines,
Santa Clara valley for its prunes and char
acteristic fruits, Santa Barbara for its olive
oil and Los Angeles and San Bernardino
Tor their oranges.
But between the people who produce
and the merchants who handle these and
the collateral trade which they support.
there has been too little intercourse. The
city men need to be drawn cut of their
clubs and the country people away from
their plows and packing houses for time
to meet and know each other. Then each
class will better understand the enthusiasm
OF the Eastern visitor who passes between
city and country on a tour and sees and
likes it all. There is no legitimate enter
prise or established business in the State
that would not be bettered by a freer ming
ling of the people. The places that are
alive with enterprise will be grateful for
the appreciation of others, and those that
need the spur of example to urge them to
awaken will be glad of the tonic that
changes their condition and contributes TO
their prosperity. Provincialism will melt
away under such contacts. The State
Board of Trade has started this sort Of
ferment by compelling its affiliated bodies
to meet by representatives in its regular
councils, and the system which it has so
well started should stir whole communities
TO take more frequent look at the whole