The herald., 1897-07-11
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!: The FUTURE OF
: SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA F;
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and while there was nothing better.
There was once an excuse for poor fruit
here and some made money out of 1t.
But as soon as a reasonable amount OF
good fruit came on the market the poor
was done. There is now no excuse for
raising poor fruit here, for the land that
will raise fruit at all will generally raise
good under proper care; and If 1t Will
raise any fruit it is certain to be good
for something else that will pay some
thing or at least support a family in
comfort. And having raised poor fruit
there is still less excuse for trying to
market it abroad for it hurts the repu-
tation of the whole section. AS the good
fruit of California is the best in the
world so is its poor fruit the very mean
est. Any market can be quickly drugged
with it and it should be indictable to
ship it out of the state. But no market
has yet been drugged with good fruit
we'll put up and honestly labeled, SO
that the buyer can know exactly what
he is getting and retailers not be troub-
led by their consumers complaining.
Such fruit has never failed to win a rep
utation that is as good capital as good
name in any business. The fruit lands
of this section are not large enough to
drug the market with such goods.
Few of those who have come here
within the last six or seven years have
any idea of how Southern California
won its fight single-handed and alone
with even the greater part of it's own
state arrayed against it, with absolute
ignorance of its merits all over the east,
but intense prejudice against it every
where on account of the "black eye"
that for years so many of our industries
had been exhibiting, and especially the
way our writers and takers all toyed
with the truth. On a warp of we'll
stretched fact was woven a woof Of
purple and gold, that made nearly every
one mad when he came in contact with
the reality. Many a savage letter has
been sent to the eastern press by some
one who would really have liked the
country had he. not been so embittered
by disappointment. The whole state
had the world against it for the unwise
enthusiasm of it's friends; but we had
not only the world, but the rest of the
state. Yet while the north was advertis-
ing fools to keep out of the sand desert"
and come north, where they could raise
something beside rattlesnakes, cactus
and tarantulas," to come where you do
not have to irrigate,' and where you
could reach a market before death,
freight rates or the ague could wind up
your business, the settlers in the des-
pissed "cow countries came faster than
ever. Richer and richer were those
that came, and there was strong reason
to suspect that the south was not only
getting the cream of the immigra tion,
but about all of the cheese.
During all those years there was
scarcely a man who bought land south
of Tehachepi who did not we'll know
that north of 1t he could get from three
to six times the quantity of land and
water for his money. But he would not
have it. All the pious warnings of the
philanthropists Of the north fell as short
of the mark as the immense Christmas
edition of the Sacramento Record
Union in 1885, in which the words bar
rem hills" were printed in big capitals
over the whole region south of Tehach-
epi. In the north it was considered
fine joke, and was scattered far and
wide. 1t served the rascals right, for
were they not perpetrating base fraud
on trusting humanity? The immediate
result was the finest catch of fat tender
feet the world has ever seen made in the
same time.
Then the north started in to stop the
"silly BOOM" and turn the tide up there
where there was something solid"
when they get that boom busted tney
will come up here where they can have
something for their money" was the
common talk in many portions of the
north. The eastern press, too, teemed
with letter from the disappointed buyers
of town lots on margins who failed to
catch the next sucker soon enough.
They proved to the world that Southern
California never was anything but
town lot boom on desert, unable to
raise anything but prices and that the
bubble was now 50 thoroughly pricked
that it could never be inflated again.
Result, six years of the most substan-
tial growth any country ever had, more
money taken in per acre than any other
ever took and three years Of less suf-
fering from the hard times than any
other part of the country, accompanied
with a continuous growth in town and
country when almost everywhere else
all development has stopped. Nowhere
else could the prices of productive land
have stood as firmly as they stood here
and stand today in most places. The
| shrinkage was almost entirely on town
lots or dry land. Such folly as we went
through then would have laid any other
| count try to sleep for nearly generation.
| There are cities with good support and
sound conditions that have been para
lived for half lifetime by much less
than Los Angeles went through. Yet
this city has made its best growth on
the collapse of the boom, and especially
during the last three years. Such things
do not happen on wind alone. 1t takes
something more than the arch of rain
how to sustain such weight as Southern
California now carries. Such progress
can only be on merit that is so plain that
even the most cautious recognize it.
The money invested here in the last
three years is sufficient proof of that.
If, with so many influential enemies,
the land thus grew for so many years,
what will it do now that they are all
turned to friends, with new ones grow
ing almost by the second? If, in hard
times, it has done so well, what will it
do when the day again breaks and the
tide of money now congesting in the
banks is let loose in a wave of specu-
lation that is quite apt to follow the long