The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-09-08
A FAIR CRITICISM.

Somebody once prayed to be saved
from "the candid friend" and all will
agree that the structures of co-workers
and believers in ones own cause are the
most unwelcome, although the most
wholesome, Of all criticism. We believe
that they who have felt compelled to
complain of the selfishnesss of the Cali
fornian have had great cause for it.
It is not that the Californian is not
personally generous or proud of the
State and jealous of her good name;
but the complaint has been that he
has not felt the deep and abiding senti-
ment on behalf of her business and her
institutions that is so necessary to the
awakening and maintaining of sturdy
public spirit, without which no State can
be truly and enduringly prosperous and
great. In strict line with this general
feeling was the following utterance in
Mr.. Huntington's recently published
letter: I'm California it has been every
man for himself ever since the State be-
gan its existence, and nowhere in the
Union has this selfish and unwise spirit
been more pronounced" This is very
plain, even curt language, but is it not
substantially fair and just, and, therefore,
proper and timely criticism?
Let US honestly ask ourselves if locaIi-
ties have treated each other, take one
case with another, in way to bring the
most credit and benefit to the State? Has
and unreasonable and the tone and lam
guage of the local newspaper provincial
and puerile? Referring to recent boom"
events, let US even ask our friends of the
southern part of the State TO tell us what
has been the greatest source Of mischief
Would they not be obliged to say that it
has been the childish and unreasoning
jealousy of section? The local boomer is
being overborne by the rising tide of
good sense, and the old curse will not
always last, but the folly and the wrong
committed by selfish schemers will take
generation of good words and works to
fully overcome and atone for Even to-
day ambitious seaside jewellers are push
ing out little wharves on shallow shores
to try to toll landward the commerce of
the coast, unmindful of the larger fact
that where nature has made no great
harbor it remains for an aggregation of
capital and the cooperation of Govern
ment to create one, and that it cannot
Council.
If any place or any set ofmerchants find
the currents of trade bearing away to
others, whether it is to be asked of San
Francisco or San Diego, the question is,
What can save? Surely not shutting
ones eyes to facts, nor moody COM
plainings against fate nor ones neigh
bors. All the wealth and all the oppor-
tunities that ever lay open to California
are hers to-day, ifonly the people will see
and act in the name of a common pride and
purpose. But no one section nor no one
set of workers or believers can ever
justly claim to prescribe the great lines
cf a States destiny.
If we were in need of further illustra-
tons of some of our unfortunate mani
festations of personal local selfishness
and jealousies, we might refer to the
clamor that comes when something is
offered to US by way of political compli-
ment or favor. Many proffered politi-
cal honor and many an appointment that
would have given credit and power to
our State has been Withdrawn because of
the scramble for it; and many an enter
prise has been stopped and become dis
appointment, if not ruin, because of the
babel of tongues.
The causes of this lack of community
harmony are not far to seek. California
was first peopled by men to whom it
offered possibilities of great and sudden
wealth and from first to last large gains
have been expected and demanded in all
sorts of undertakings. There has been,
as distinguished from the older COM
munities in the slower East, a speculative
tendency in most business affairs, born
of desire to make money and not build
it into the community itself Too many
fortunes have been riotously wasted be-
cause easily acquired, or, what is equally
disastrous to the State, have been taken
away from it utterly and made to swell
the wealth of communities in which they
could never have been SO easily and
swiftly earned. Very much OF what this