Los Angeles herald., 1891-10-06
CHEAP RATES.
The Thing Most Needed to Secure

The Thing Most Needed to Secure
Prosperity.
Commodore Rufus R. Haines has the
following paper in the San Francisco
Wasp Of September 19th:1
"What is the thing most needed to
secure the prosperity of California;"
l answer unhesitatingly Cheaper
very cheap-passenger and freight rates
between it and all the eastern states of
the Union and the CaRadas, And to my
mind the truth of the assertion is so
very plain that do not deem it neces-
sarv TO use your maximum OF one
thousand words in an argument oprove
it,. A few facts, stated in my own
homely way, will make my answer
self-eyident truth.
1t needs no multiplying of words to
support the assertion that the market
for our surplus products is far distant,
and that there is no known way of
bringing producer and consumer nearer
each other. A substitute-andt the only
one that can suggest itself-is cheaper
fares over the long road that cannot be
shortened.
Our over two score years Of occupancy
of California has proven that we have
little material for the manufacturer or
fuel to generate the power he requires.
But score of years experimenting has
proven that we have state unequaled
in the conditions of soil and climate
necessary for the successful cultivation
of grasses, grains, fruits and root crops.
So deem it time to conclude we should,
in the main, leave manufacturing es-
IL IL. hO
mines and forest and cotton fields, and
grow here the food to sustain them. The
millions of bushels of wheat now being
gathered intoi our graneries and the
thousands of carloads of potatoes going
to waste because they cannot pay pres
ent transportation rates to market, are
proofs of our ability as food-growing
state, and an assurance that we can fill
any order in the line of such productions
on a twelve or even six months notice.
Rating as a Junior '49er, knew the
foothills and valleys of California before
the plow had furrowed them, and ere it
was known that anything but the ma
tive grasses could be grown outside of
the little enclosures that are known as
the Mission gardens. l have been a
witness to the planting and growth of
RADIO, Amador and Placer counties, the
conversion of the barren plains of Fresno
into their present magnificent and the
magic transformation of the once derided
"Cow Counties" OF Southern California
into gold-bearing gardens and bowers of
beauty, and l know it only wants the
fact established that our products can be
marketed at profit tc fill up all our
~o1a s,,A
tented population. The market is at
the end OF ''long haul" and the rail-
road dictates the proft-some are I'M
generous enough to say.-pockets it.
That the railroads hold the veal of
the Pacific Coast states in their hands is
patent. And their hitherto policy has
not been favorable to our rapid develop
ment.
will supplement my testimony and
conclude with an extract from the vi
salia Delta, the leading and oldest jour
nal in the San Joaquin valley. OF the
managers of the railroad, it says:
Like the Apache Indian, their hand
is raised against all mankind"
Again it says:
Producers in this county are talking
seriously of establishing mule trains for
transporting their dried fruit and other
crops to market. One day this
week farmer living near Visalia as
sured the editor OF this paper that it is
his intention later in the season to use
his teams to haul his produce to San
Francisco"
1 leave my case with the jury, asking
your consent to admit reply to the
query, would Lower Rates Pay Cost of
the Service?"