The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-01-09
LABOR IN SOUTH RN CALIFORNIA.
What Are the Chances There for Men
OF Small g pitel7
From HarpeYs' for January.

From HaTpeys' for January.
Capital is nece sary for successful agricul-
ture OF horticulture in Southern California.
But where is 1t not needed In New Eng
landl In Kansas, where land which was
given to actual settlers is covered with
mortgages for money absolutely necessary
to develop It'll But passing this by, what is
the chance In Southern California for
laborers aud for mocha licsi Let US Under
stand the situation. In California there is
no exception to the rule that continual
labor, thrift, and foresight are essential
to the getting OF good living OF the gaia
ing Of competence. No doubt specula-
ton will spring up again. 1t is Inc vitable
with the present enormous and yearly in
creasing yield OF fruits, the better inteli-
genoe in vine culture, wine-making, and
rasin-curing, the growth of marketable
oranges, lemons, ETC., and the c0nse-
quent rise in the value Of land. Doubt
less fortunes will be made by enterprising
companies who secure large areas Of unim-
proved land at low prices, bring water on
them, and then sell in small lots. But this
will me to an end. The tendency is to
subdivide the land into small holdings-into
farms aud gardens Of ten and twenty acres.
The great ranches are sure to be broken up.
With the resulting settlement by industri-
GUS people, the cities will again experience
blooms" but these are not peculiar to
California. In my mind / see tbs time
when this region because it Will pay better
proportionately to cultivate a small areal
will be one OF small farms, of neat cottages,
of / ,dustrious homes. The owner is pretty
certain to prosper-that is. to get a good
living (which is independence and lay aside
little yeaPly-if the work Is done by him
self aud his family. And the popularity of
the situati Is that the farm or garden,
whichever it is called, will give agreeable and
most healthful occupation to all the boys and
girls in the family all the days in the year
that can be spared fr m the school. Aside
from the blowing the labor is light. Prun-
ing. grating budding, the picking Of the
grapes, the gathering of the fruit from trees,
the sorting, packing and canning. are labor
for light and delft hands, and labor distrib-
uted through the year. The harvest, OF one
sort and another, Is almost continuous, so
that young girls and boys can have, in we'll
settled districts, pretty steady employment
"a long season in establishments packing
oranges; at another time, in canning fruits;
al another, in packing r0isins.
1t goes without saying that in the indus
| tries now developed, and in Others as
| important, which are in their infancy TOR
| instance, the culture of the olive for oil
| and ss an article of food, the growth and
curing of figs, the gathering of almonds,
IIuSilsu WdluuIss eJC.)s tu0 lhUOI VI lb0
| owners of the land and their families VII
not suffice. There must be as large pro-
portion of day laborers as there
| Is in other regions where
such products are grown. Chi
nese labor at certain seasons has been ne
cessity. Under the present policy of Cali
| fornia this must diminish, and its place be
taken by some other. The pay for this
labor has always been good. 1t is certain
| to be more and more in demand. Whether
the pay will ever approach near to the Eu-
ropean standard is a question, but it is
fair presumption that the exceptional profit
will for a long time keep wages up.
During the "boom" period all wages were
| high, those of skilled mechanics especially.
owing to the great amount of building on
| speculation. The ordinary laborer on
ranch had $50 month and board and lodg-
ing; laborerS of higher grade, 50 to SO SO
a day; skilled masons, Sc; carpenters, from
50 so to IS; plasterers, 81 to ST. house serv>
ants, from $25 to S3A month. Since the
BOOM wages of skilled mechanics have
declined at least % per cent
and there has been less demand for labor
generally, except in connection with fruit
raising and harvesting. 1t would be unWise
for laborers TO go TO California on an uncer-
tsinty, but it can be said Of that country
with more confidence than OF any other
section that its peculiar industries, now
daily increasing, will absorb an increasing
amount of day labor, and later on it will
remunerate skilled artisan labor.