The morning call., 1893-03-04
OUR EASTERN CRITICS.

= The New York Sun having demonstrated
to'~its own satisfaction that california has
neger yet produced any literary man OF emi-
nencr. orany native author Of high quality"
goes on to observes:
There is not In Congress single supereminent
member from California, not in the Senate, OF.
In the House. We do not observe any dlStln-
guishsd Californian statesman anywhere; not
in any department OF the Government, not even
in the diplomatic service As We look over the
crowd Of great political leaders in this country
we do not catch sight OF Californian.
These statements might be controYerted
but let them pass. and let US assume that
they are true. Reasons abound why Calls
fornIa should not be furnishing crop of
poets and statesmen.
In the first place, eminence in letters and
in politics is the fruit Of generations Of
evolution. At the time of the Revolution
New York State had been settled for a CEN
tury and three-quarters, yet in all that time
it had not produced one single public man
who left a mark on his times. Two
centuries and half elapsed before New
York produced a poem or a. history
or. book Oh any subject which Is
read to-day. The mental development
which yields fruit in the shape of high works
of intellect is the result of generations of
endeaVOr. Each generation gains little
on its predecessor, and at last men appear
who are competent to take the lead OF human
thought New communities occupy rela-
lively to older communities the position
which schoolboys occupy toward grown
people--it is not till they ripen TO full ma
turity that they can compete with their
seniors. To be fair with California the Sun
should have compared the men it produces
with the New YOrkers who flourished in the
days of Peter Stuyvesant; that comparison
would have furnished less ground for East
eru exnltation.
Again, every community concentrates its
best intellect on the pursuits which promi SO
the largest rewards. In this State the pur-
suit of wealth in the fields of mining and
agriculture was more tempting than the
cultivation OF literary or political aims
CalifOrnians devoted their best endeavor
to the acquisition of riches; how well they
succeeded the Tribune's catalogue of mil
lionaires shows. The same ability which
piled up wealth would have led TO eminence
In any branch of human endeav0r; the
early Californians, being practical people.
paid moro attention TO compelling the earth
d TO yield her increase than to writing books
or shaping political policies. Can the Sun
blame them?
The Sun sneers at our counting Bret
Harte, Joaquin Miller, Professor Royce and
others as CalifOrnians and says: 1--WE are
aware that'a few of our literary geniuses
. have lived for while in the Golden State"
"A man does not always belong where he
q was born. He must be credited to the
place where he has chosen to plant his DOM
icile. New York has always claimed Alex
ander Hamilton as one of her very greatest
men, yet be was born 10 the West indies:
Bryant was born in New England, Greeley
was born in New Hampshire, Evarts in
Massachusetts Grover Cleveland in New
Jersey. Yet they all counted as New
Workers because it was in New York that
they did their ife's work. Shall we be denied
the right of calling Starr King a Califor-
niau because he was born in New York !?
: Barely forty years have passed since chill
dren of American blood began to be born
in California;; is it. surprising that in
that short period the State has not pro-
dnced poets with the divine afflatus, his
torians like Macaulay, or statesmen fit to
shape the destinies Of the world?
For a State to produce constellation. of
really great. men a variety o. conditions
must combine. There must be an accumu-
lation of wealth in order that stud shall
be able to con centrate their efforts on ,en-
tai development without being tramme ed
by considef atoms of bread winning The,
eommnnity must be intelligent; it is only
by the atiritiau of other minds that genius