The record-union., 1896-01-14

pdSSed It's uOOTS. here was a WHOl6
year of exhibit of the full round of Cali
fornia's capacities made in Chicago.
From 1888 to 1886 the Southern Pa
cific Company made an exhibit of the
resources of California in London under
the direction of DR.. Kingsbury. The
planting of the Lancaster Colony was
one of the unfortunate results of that
exhibit.
The best exhibits California has at
the East are the fruit stands. In all or
nearly all Of the principal cities of the
East the fruits of California are ex-
hibited every summer and under the
name of California fruit Unfortunately
much fruit of an inferior Eastern pro-
duction is thus labeled; but at the same
time the fruit stands of Chicago, Phil
adelphia, st. Louis, Cincinnati and New
York are a constant exhibit of the re-
sources of this State The suggestion
is by no means new. The State Board
of Trade had under consideration the
question of making an exhibit in the
principal groceries of 100 cities in the
United States. This project failed for
want of means.
The groceries were willing to main
tain an exhibit Of the products of Cali
fornia and keep it in good order, but
money enough could not be obtained
for the formation of the exhibit. Those
unfamiliar with the facts are perhaps
not aware that the present exhibit of
the State Board of Trade could not be
duplicated in one year for $4,000 By
all means, let US have an Eastern ex-
hibit. A dozen Of them, if you please;
but such an exhibit Will not be pro-
NOTED by rnisconstruing the motives of
those who have interested themselves
in collecting the exhibits already estab
lished; nor will it be made by the gen
tlemen who were interviewed by your
contemporary.
In looking over that list I find that
not more than one is a contributor to
the expenses of the State Board of
Trade, and he contributes the munifi-
cent sum of 50 so per month. The gen
tlemen interviewed expressed the opin-
ion that but little has been accom-
plished by the State Board of Trade I
am not familiar with the opportunities
they may may have had for judging of
this matter, but I am familiar with the
fact that they have not instituted any
inquiry which would justify them in
passing an opinion.
The State Board of Trade is the con-
certed effort of twenty eight counties
to maintain at the chief metropolitan
center a bureau of information and an
exhibit which will attract attention to
their advantages. 1t has been a per-
fectly unselfsh, patriotic effort. No one
| connected with it, except its Secretary,
has received salary, and none have de-
rived personal advantage.
I wish now, in a most emphatic man
ner, to call the attention of the public
to the fact that during its entire exist
ence it has been the victim of the mean
est malevolence ever visited upon any
unoffending organization. Chief among
the statements made to discredit it's
efforts is that it is an adjunct of the
Southern Pacific Company that it has
been but little more than an advertis
ing agency for that company, and my
personal relation with it mas been
pointed to as conclusive evidence of the
truth of this charge.
This statement is wholly devoid of
truth. and l take the personal response
bility of saying that those who make
it are aware of its falSity. There has
never been at any time any lands in
with the Central Pacific or the South
ern Pacific Railroad Company were in
terested advertised through the agency
of the State Board of Trade. Not one
phamplet or circular has ever been per-
mitted to be placed upon its counters or
distributed through its agency. When
it has made an Eastern exhibit no cir
cular or phamplet relating to any in
terest of the Southern Pacific Company
has been distributed through its agency.
That the Southern Pacific Company has
been the most liberal contributor to its
support is true, and it is true to the in
finite credit of that corporation. Upon
this one fact has been based all the
petty, mean-spirited opposition, which,
when we consider it was launched as an
unselfish, patriotic effort to accomplish
some good for this commonwealth, be-
comes worse than contemplate.
I find evidence of this in one of the
interviews which has provoked this
statement. One gentleman in effect inA
forms the public that he is opposed to
any broadening of the effort of San
Francisco to assert its primacy among
the commercial cities of this State, and
he says he can understand readily why
Mr.. Mills has been in favor of a Pa
cific Coast exhibit. He declares the
reason that the Southern Pacific Com
pany has its railroad line to Oregon and
it's steamship line to the Hawaiian Is
lands.
I could well afford to treat with ST.
lence this denial of worthy motive un-
derlying anything 1 have suggested or
done in connection with the growth of
California were it not that it is the
common lot of all who have attempted
to accomplish something for the State
to be in like manner misrepresented and
maligned. Your contemporary charac-
terizes the statements of this detractor
as candid. I respectfully represent that
it has mistaken bad breeding for candor
in this instance. The statement pos
sesses the merit of neither truth nor
candor.
The Southern Pacific Company has
no line of steamers to the Sandwich Is
lands, and is not interested in any such
lines. The gentleman could have made
himself master of this fact by the
slightest inquiry. That he stated for a
fact that the Southern Pacific Company
has a line of steamers to Honolulu and
declares that it is in the service of this
line of steamers that had made a sug-
gestion is manifestation of willingness
to invent a line of steamers for the pur-
pose of impeaching my motives and of
disparaging me in the estimation of the
public. / am wholly Indifferent as to
the personal application of this species
of malevolence. but 1 am not Indifferent
to its constant Misrepresentation to-
ward every public-spirited citizen of
the State. Many of these have united
their efforts with the State Board of