The record-union., 1893-02-07

IL nau no direct communication with the
rest OF the country; but was it happy or
prosperous in that condition? We know
1t was not. But California now has rail-
roads, and the principal of these is on
trial: We are told that it has oppressed
ana Is expressing the citizens of the State
who are now seeking relief. Let us see.
Inc Old adage is a true one: by their
Ifults ye shall know them"
1le Manager of the San Francisco
Iratnc Association has repeatedly stated
that he looks with suspicion on railroads
ngures; that his experience leads him to
be dubious OF them; but l do not think
he can accuse the United States census OF
being partial or made up to favor any
particular interest. 1t may, therefore, be
well to make few comparisons from the
census by way of illustration:
California had in 1870, the first year in
which the overland railroad was in opera
with population of 100000; that being
S303 per capita.
This was her population and develop
ment after twenty years of Statehood, in
cludlng gold excitement and produc-
ton such as the world has never seen.
IN 1850, with mining values steadily de-
creaslng, the valuation of real estate had
increased to S49l, ,SS5, ,079; and her popula
| ton 10 $4,000, being S569 per capita-au
increase of 1922, 34S, ,533 in ten years, or
nearly three times.
In 1890 her real estate was valued at
S93O, ,33222, $50; her population had increased
to ,2OS,OO0 being $40 per capita-being
an increase of over S76l ,000,0O0 or S407 per
capita, or nearly five times in twenty
years.
Now let US glance at Kansas, with
which State we have been frequently
compared for several months past:
Census Bulletin No. l04. issued August
-, 1891. gives the valuation for 1890 of
Kansas, including personal property, as
S29O, ,393, I'll, being S203 6S per capita, while
the valuation of California, including
personal property, was Sl,O7l, 1928 or
1856 per capita.
Thus the wealth of the people of Cali
fornia is 4.36 times as great per capita us
the people of the State with which Mr..
Leeds would compare us.
The total valuation OF Kansas in 1880
was SlS0, ,39l 900, which in 1880 had in
creased to 929O, ,293, 900, or an increase of
Sl29, ,4O2, ,0OO.
With which compare California, in
1850, S5S4, ,51S, 900, and in 1890 Sl,07I, I02.-
COO, or an increase of S4S6, ,354 600
The census OF 1890 shows Kansas had
5000 miles of railroad within her borders,
while California had but 1885 miles, or
less than half as much; but we find in
twenty years the enormous sum of SOL
'pO3ooO eNtNACi W bLO IdAdDlG value Oh real
estate In California, not to mention an
increase OF over S60,000, 900 in her personal
property, all of which | maintain is di-
rectly traceable to the construction and
operation Of railroads, which gave her
communication and direct connection
with 65,000,0O0 people on the eastern side
OF the continent.
To one not familiar with the facts or
hearing them for the first time, this may
sound like a startling claim, but we need
only refer to the recently published re-
ports of the California State Board of
Trade to prove the truth of our assertion.
Since the decadence of gold mining, and
previous TO the construction of trans
continental roads and the DEVELOPMENT
brought about thereby, California was es-
sentially a pastoral and wheat-growing
State, her average yield of wheat ranging
from fifteen to twenty million centals,
most of which, as at present, reached
tide water on the bay at San Francisco.
General n. p. Chapman, in his address
before the State Horticultural Convention
at San Jose, November I5 1892, states that
in the year 1890 the value Of fruit and
fruit products exceeded by over half 4
million dollars the value of wheat and
flour exported within the year. In 1880
he says, the export of fruit may be said
to have commenced, and yet, he writes,
''In ten years we added $50, 900, 900 annu-
ally to the wealth of this State without
diminishing the possibilities of wheat
growing by so much as bushel."
Still quoting from the same report, we
find that in 1891 a comparatively small
acreage. in Southern California re-
ceived 81, ,!96,O0O for oranges alone, and
this will be very largely increased the
present year. Riverside, he says, shipped
fifteen carloads in the winter of lSSO-1,
and in lSS9-9O shipped 800 carloads.
And | wOnlQ saw RIGHT lprn Wbila not
abating a jot from the debt we owe our
Santa Ee friends, it should be borne in
mind that the Santa Fe was not COM
pleted to San Bernardino until 1856 and
did not have its own lines into Los Ange-
les until June, 1887; therefore, the Won
derful development about which we
have been talking was due to the Central
Pacific and Southern Pacific, who created
and fostered it.
In 1870 shipments of deciduous fruits,
mainly from the central portion of the
State, were only about 1000, 900 pounds.
In 1880 these were quadrupled, being 49,
000,0 900 pounds. This latter in 1891 was in
creased over five times, aggregating 3d.
000,000 pounds, while in 1892 shipments
exceeded l00.090,000 pounds.
Still quoting from the same report, we
find in 1880, Fresno County had less than
10000 populations; in 1880 it was over
3, 900. Fresno is the center of the raisin
industry, which previous to 1873 NAV be
said to have had no existence In 1890
her shipments were less than two million
pounds and in 1891 had increased to over
thirty-seven million pounds. What is
said of Fresno County may be said of
Santa Clara, Kern, of Butte, Tehama and
other counties, as well as Los Angeles
and San Bernardino.
1t is needless TO say that this wonderful
development of our fruit culture would
n D1ra mr. lnGGI IN n wit h.
land roads as well as the local system
within the State. Without cheap and
rapid transportation the business would
have not been possible and the State
could not have attained anything like
her present degree OF prosperity to say
nothing of the great and brilliant future
which awaits her.
But it may be suggested. it is not
through, but local rates which are under
consideration. My answer is, the revenue
from starting point to State line is a local
earning and this charge is, on all the
staple products of California. the lowest
rail transportation in the world.
Even under the rates established bv
the defunct TransconJinentalA Association.
that great bugbear of the San francisco
Traffic Association, rates on the principal
products of California, which, while in
trinsically much more valuable than
wheat, were to enable them to reach the
great centers OF population at the East,
transported at rates which were lower per
mile than rates on wheat from points in
the Dakotas and other Western States to
Milwaukee or Chicago.
maintain it makes no material differ
ence to the farmer or consumer what rates
he is asked to pay from San Francisco to
the interior on his tobacco, tea, whisky
and other luXuries; that it makes no diff
ference whether these articles are jobbed
by a merchant living in San Francisco.
Los Angeles, Sacramento, or elsewhere.