Speech #480122125

Our legislation. in regard to the importation of Chinese labor. I believe is to do very much toward breaking up the immense land holdings in the State of California. It is only by cheap contract laborthat any man or corporation can afford to hold the great farms which are cultivated in California and in the Northwest. That can only be done by cheap labor. and when cheap labor is not to be had those immense holdings of land must be broken up and must be sold to actual settlers. Any one who will look at the history of the State of California for the past ten or fifteen years will discover that it has grown very little in population. The reason is that nearly all of the available land in the State of California has come into the hands of a very few individuals. It is held by single individuals to the amount of hundreds of thousands of acres. and they have been only able to hold that land and make it profitable by employing cheap Chinese contract labor. When the labor of California shall have come to the same rate that is paidin the East. the capitalists now holding those vast areas of land will be compelled to distribute them. and when that shall be done the State of Calilbrnia will take on a new growth and energy. For the past five ycars immigration has been passing fromthe East through the State of California and going up to Oregon andWashington Territory. and why? Not becaus6the lands are better andmore desirable. butbecase nearly the whole land of California today is in the hands of a few greatland monopolists. This is true to a large extent in Texas and in many of the Western Territories.