THE PRESENT STATE OF CALIFORNIA.

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume II, Issue 138, 16 July 1880, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE PRESENT STATE OF CALIFORNIA.

The State of California, once famous for its wonderful gold yield, is in danger of becoming infamous for its revolutionary politics. The centre of discontent is San Francisco. The extraordinary development of this city is claimed as one of the wonders of the age , and it is a magnificent product of modern activity. ‘Where else,’ it has been proudly asked, ‘ has there been assembled so cosmopolitan a population of vigorous and ambitious people?’ Melbourne approaches, but does not equal it. The only port of a richly dowered territory of more than 300,000 square miles, San Francisco ought to present to the world a history of unchecked progress. Yet we find a writer in the ‘Californian’ summing up what has happened to this favoured metropolis during the last two years iu the following terms : No tire like that of Chicago has devastated San Francisco. No pestilence has driven away our people as from Memphis or New Orleans. Our trade has not been diverted by a successful rival. No war has interrupted our commerce, no floods or droughts have destroyed the staples in which we deal. Yet our banking capital and deposits were reduced, during 1879, 23,000,000 dollars. The loans made on mortgages in the city have fallen from 24,000,000 dollars, in 18/7, to 15,000,000 dollars in IS7S, and 9,500,000 dollars in 1879, the releases exceeding the amounts loaned. Our rich men are fleeing to the East and Europe. No new enterprises are being undertaken. Old ones are winding up, or curtailing their business. Money never was so abundant for loans upon or the purchase of securities of undoubted character, like United States bonds, now quoted at 107, though paying only 4 per cent interest xier annum ; but it is not to be had at any price, where the slightest risk is involved in its use, or for loans on country property. Real estate is everywhere unsaleable, or will bring but a fraction of its recent value. Building has almost ceased. A majority of the population are hitting wildly at the people above them the capitalists (who, to a great extent, are emigrating) ; and at the people below them—the Chinese, who also are beginning to emigrate to the Eastern States. A sense of wrong has taken possession of the European working classes, and temporily maddened. Unlimited freedom in the acquisition of wealth, says the proletariat of San Francisco, is an evil which should be put down by the strong hand of the law. It is easy to point out how much fallacy enters into the composition of this doctrine ; it is not so easy to acknowled le how much truth it contains. There can be, no limit to the acquisition of wealth but the rights of other people ; but those rights are frequently ignored. In California, as in other States of the Union, gigantic commercial monopolies are a growing danger to the community. Railways aQ d other gigantic works are in the hands of powerful corporations, which fatten on the public, while in respect to land the ‘ big estate’ evil is growing to alarming proportions. These things press heavily on the lower classes, who have retaliated by an indiscriminating war against wealth. . lhe consequence is that the capital of individuals isheing removed to safer States and countries, while the corporations and monopolies, and big estates defy the revolutionary spirit.