The record-union., 1891-11-30

Will not again recur in all the future
There is much mischief in this mistaken
view. The men who have become
wealthy by the increment of values in a
growing country are those only who have
had faith in the future. The opportunities
for profitable investment to-day do not
dltfer from those of yesterday nor from
those of tomorrow. The world is new
every morning. Every day brings with
1t new heaven and new earth. The
future is illimitable, and 1t stands upon
to-day, yesterday and forever, unchange-
able. Beyond all the future there remains
future as limitless as that which con-
fronted any past era. Growth, progress,
expansion and development are the
eternal attributes of time. Added to this
is the attribute of change. The men who
have become wealthy by the develop
ment of values have had faith in their
knowledge of the forces at work and the
inferences to be drawn from their direc-
ton. Existing causes possess within
themselves the germs of irresistible
future results.
After long sleep the local press of
Oakland has at last awakened to the fact
that the existing commercial forces
which are to govern the concentration of
the population of this coast point
to Oakland as a future focal center
of commercial transaction. The Oak
land Tribune recently pointed out
with clearness and force the fact
that all the traffic carried over
land to San Francisco was ferried across
the bay, delivered by cars at the foot of
Fourth street and trucked to the whole
sale houses on Front, Battery and San
some streets, and when the goods were
sold the cost of returning them to Oak
land had to be paid by the customer or
lost by the merchant. In short, the
focal center of commercial lines is at
Oakland, and the movement of freight to
and from San Francisco at that point is a
NtoOANoo ApChulIu1O VI 1OlCoy blul6 anu
money. To understand the true signifi-
cance of this requires no hard thinking.
First it must be considered as force in
herent in the situation, and force which
will work out results in the future. To
what results do these forces tend?
Simply to the establishment at Oakland
Of o1 =
because Oakland possesses economic ad-
vantages, and commerce recognizes the
slightest economy which may really
exist in favor of any locality. The estu-
ary lying between Oakland and Ala
media is just as valuable for commercial
purposes as the water front of San Fran
cisco Bay.
Latterly there has been a strong tend
ency in the direction of removing the
manufacturing interests of the city of San
Francisco to the Straits of Carquinez.
Sooner or later the straits will be elm
mated as a water factor by means of a
bridge. The bridge will be equivalent to
solid ground, and the commerce will be
carried to point of more convenient
connection with ocean transportation,
The law governing the location of cities in
cases like these may be formulated as fol-
lows: The cheapest method of transporta-
ton will prevail over the more costly.
Wherever, therefore, convenient land
transportation, that is point where land
transportation may be localized, meets
ocean transportation, that point will be-
come focal center of converging and di-
verging rays of commerce. But the
Straits of Carquinez are not in true
sense a point of ocean transportation.
Ships do not sail through the Golden Gate
to the straits. A question of towage is
involved, and this must be added to the
cost of ocean freights. What is meant by
the terminus of ocean transportation is
that point at which ships find safe har-
borage without towage, for when the lat
ter element is introduced it ceases to be
ocean and becomes inland water trans
portation.l The people Of Seattle and
Tacoma have an endless dispute as to
where the commerce of the north
west is to focalize on the bays of that
region. The question could be determined
by the application of the foregoing rule.
AT Oakland, pilotage alone is charged to
ocean transportation, and after the bridg-
ing of the Straits of Carquinez, all lines
of rail north and east, south and south
east will focalize at Oakland harbor. At
that point it meets transportation by
ocean as completely as at any point be-
yond. All movement, therefore. beyond
that point incurs loss, and this violates
the law of the highest economy. The
real estate along the water front of Oak
land will, in the not very distant future,
possess value in excess of the highest
value for commercial purposes obtain,
able to-day in San Francisco
THE REVOLT IN CHINA.
The news of battle between the Chi
fI,a .;oII