The San Francisco call., 1896-09-13
PLEA FOR CHEAP LABOR
Coils P. Huntingtcn's Note to
the Foreign Commerce
Bureau.
The Writer Evidently Mis- understands
the Movement for Foreign
Trade.

The San Francisco Bureau of Commerce
two weeks ago mailed communication
to mem bers OF the different commercial
organizations in this City, and to local
and Eastern capitalists having large in
terests on the Pacific Coast. asking for aid
in an effort to induce countries, particu-
larly those bordering on thePacific Ocean.
to trade with San Francisco.
This letter is signed by the Chamber of
Commerce, Board OF Trade, Manufactur-
ers' and Producers Association and ten
of the principal business firms in the City.
A lengthy reply has been received
from G. P. Hun ntington, in which the pres
jdenJ Of the Southern Pacific Railroad
Company assures the bureau that he is
pleased to see movement Tor the build
ing up of tie foreign commerce of San
Francisco, but he doubts its success. Mr..
Huntington says:
To-day the population Of California is sup
pose, something less than ], 800 600; yet she is
in my opinion entirely capable of sustaining
25 900, 900 of people. She has been unable to
draw within her borders the crowding masses
OF good, thrifty colonists whom she has the
right, by reason of her natural advantages, TO
expect; and the reason of this does not lie
alone in the distance of the State from the
greater centers of business and civilization.
am told that at the present time lands can
be purchased at figures that ought to be suffi-
ciently attractive to induce settlers to improve
them. / believe there are fewer people in the
Sacramento Valley to-day, outside OF the city
of Sacramento, than there were twenty-five
years ago, which is certainly significant of
something, and unless some measures can be
devised to draw population to the Western
slope, particularly OF California, see very lit
tie use of bringing large amounts OF foreign
goods TO the san Francisco market.
Then the writer speaks of the cheaper
rates by which foreign tonange can come
to the United States via the Suez canal and
over the Atlantic than by way of San
Francisco.
ment which would tend, in my honest judg.
ment, to settle up the State of California, or to
build up important manufacturing interes is
there; but goods cannot be manufactured to
any considerable extent until her people
change their present attitude and policy
toward legitimate enterprises. So long as the
policy OF California is to drive out the cheap
labor of the world the State cannot compete
successfully with the East or with outside
countries.
Mr.. Huntington is skeptical regarding
the green fruit shipments to outside mar
kets, but is enthusiastic over the dried and
preserved fruit industry. He writes:
There is no place in the world where men can
do better work than in San Francisco, DOR
where they can live fairly well for smaller
amount of money. think If one was allowed
the cheap fibers of Eastern Asia could be
manufactured into woofs and cordage and
twine, and from California distributed and
marketed in any part of the world, and hold
their OWE against any competition that could
be brought against them.
The writer then says that the railroads
have been unjustly vilified and abused by
more than one of the journals in San
Francisco, and says that he cares livery
little personally for such matters" but he
| thinks sit suicidal policy on the part of
the people to countenance any newspaper
whose course is opposed to the progress
OF prosperity of the State, and is based on
motives discreditable to decency, morality
and humanity"
Mr.. Huntington, after his plea for cheap
foreign labor and the products thereof,
says:
If we can do anything toward building up
the farming, industrial and commercial in
terests of California we shall be glad to do
continuing work in that excellent direction,
as we have done heretofore. We shall be glad
to help foreign commerce also wherever q
satisfactory way to do so can be shown; but
| foreign commerce will come nearer taking
care of itself after the domestic interests of the
State have been fostered and developed than
almost anything else Will l am, gentlemen,
| sincerely yours, G. P. HUNTINGTON.