The record-union., 1891-02-12

ten years the property would have netted
tax alton upon fifty thousand dollars. But
if the Improvements were made, they
alolt te would be worth one million dollars
the tenth year, which is just nine hundred
and fifty thousand more than it would
have been if the factory had not been
built.
But I must not cross the American
Riv er till come to it. Let me ask where
other cities locate their manufactures
Go 0 Stockton, ''the slough city" Her
facilities are largely on these sloughs.
Upon them, by preference, and in many
cases by necessity, are placed her factor
les. l once almost pushed our manufact-
urin g committee into the tannery busi-
ness | only went so far as to move that
q COZ Qmittee be appointed, which should
report the most suitable site in Sacra-
mentO for a tannery. l am doubtful,
however, if the committee had found a
Suita bic place, or, rather, a first-class
place. But / state without hesitation, and
| sh all prove if contradicted, that the land
between.
THE NORTH LEvEE
And the American River is not only the
most suitable for a tannery that we can
find, but is better than any other city can
find. 1t is low land and vet high enough
to Oh ain into the rivers of its borders.
Facilities for distribution of its products
and Tor gathering the raw material and
/ fuel ;re not only first-clasS, but embrace
both land and water carriage. The city
near by viii always furnish operators,
and They are or may be too peaceable to
strik g.
L vii not now, or perhaps at all, discuss
the q uestiorl of drainage into the rivers.
Mayor Comstock has shown enterprising
| thought in the suggestion of placing our
next water works above the mouth ofthe
Amer lean River. Our whole object in
tho mas hoS 70 2,
salt iter, and it will reach it by q short
route if the river is adopted, and five
can not get the drainage to salt water our
noble river engineers will get the salt
water TO our drainage, and there Is no
ditterence-for the tide once reached to
this city and may again soon. Sipage
can oaly occur when the American is
above the 23-foot high water gauge, and
the Al nerlcan never remains high but
night. and can not force any sipage in so
short a time.
But al will ask about trusting,a factory
10 the sudden rises of the two rivers. OF
course that is not to be thought of. Well,
our city cannot build any more levees,
and so there is an end of it. Taxes are
already too high.
But may we not, at all events, prove
that the place is the place for manutact-
ures, and that when the time comes the
leyee c91a 6e built? May it net be anyhow
a much smaller affair than you have
thought 1t to be? May there not be levee
builders that you have not known about?
A young friend of mine who navigated
around the (Globe) city last, winter, gave
me complete and wonderful surprise a
few days ago, and it is truly "a high
wrought pleasure for me TO give the facts
at even secondhand.
He remarked that when the water stood
last winter at the % foot gauge, he was
along the banks of the American River in
q boat. That the water then did not over
top the Elver banks at all. except in a few
low, narrow places. This was to me an
unexpected and agreeable surprise
Since then i have had an interview
with q long resident of that district, who
has given me the figures before given as
TO quantities. of land-both low or arabic,
as he calls it-and the gauge of the lowest
lands, and that it is so seldom oyernowed
and so quickly emptied, except when
held in pockets, as it We're.
THE POSSIBILITY.
Now as to the possibility of building a
levee. This resident says he will give $50
an acre and that the other arabic
land owners will do the same. That the
levee need not be built over ten feet high
anywhere to be higher than the highest
water in the American River. That to
build q levee equal to the Freeport levee
to point at Twenty-third street, where
a cross-levee puts out near Agricultural
Park, will not cost over SIC, 600. Of course
he was surprised to find that 400 acres of
arabic land would, at $50 an acre, raise
ST, 900.
Now I only give this as the conversa-
ton of fnon-surveyors and unprofessional
But a man in boat knows when he is