California. Capital: SACRAMENTO. The romantic name of California came from a jest of the great Cortez. When the conqueror went to Mexico Montalvo's romance of Sargas de Esplandian, Son of Amadis of Gaul," was breaking the booksellers' records of Spain; and in this work (published at Seville in 1510), occurs a description of the Island of California, peopled with Amazons and rich with gold and jewels, and stocked with griffins and other monsters. After the spoil of Mexico had ceased to satisfy Cortez, he sent out an expedition to discover new lands to conquer. Instead of another Mexico the expedition discovered the desolate and forbidding peninsula that hangs from the western coast, and in derision at the contrast between high hopes and poor reality, the new land was given the name of California. American California-the Alta California of the Spaniard-was not discovered until 1542, when Juan Cabrillo sailed up the coast as far as Cape Mendocino. There was no thought of colonization of this land. Expeditions occasionally sought for gold, but found nothing but poverty-stricken Indians. Sir Francis Drake landed on the coast from his voyage of plunder and discovery in 1578, and refitted his ship, probably in what is now known as Drake's Bay. It was not until 1769 that the first settlement was made in Alta California, The inspiring cause was the religious zeal of the Francescan Fathers. They established themselves at San Diego in 1769, and within fifty years had founded twenty-one missions along the coast from twenty to thirty miles apart, reaching as far north as San Francisco and Sonoma, brought a large part of the Indian population into the church, and had established the great herds of cattle, which were the wealth of early California. The history of California divides itself naturally into three periods: 1. The Spanish period, 1769-1822, in which the development was mainly through ecclesiastics, the civil government being conducted in general for the support and protection of the missions. 2. The Mexican period, distinguished by the secularization of the missions, and the settlement of the country by Mexican landowners developing a pastoral civilization rich in horses and cattle. 3. The American period, from the Mexican war of 1846, distinguished by the discovery of gold and the sudden rise of California into a rich and populous American State. Gold was discovered January 19, 1848, at Coloma, by James W. Marshall. The news spread rapidly, and within two years more than 100,000 State government was formed, and 13, 1849), and California was pro State, September 9, 1850, without stage of a Territory. The growth rate. The mines reached their when $66,000,000 in gold was taken was found that the State possessed and the chief production of the The farm products of 1900 were re gold product had sunk to $15,730, California has been the labora ments in government. The Consti the impulse of the workingmen's the constitutional students by deal States had been left to the Legisla smoothly than had been expected, veloping a system of legislation by constitutional amendments. Every from six to a dozen laws in the Every Legislature submits to the the form of constitutional amend judgment in deciding upon them. worked out a system of home rule 3,500 inhabitants being authorized duct its municipal affairs without ture. All of the important cities of the privilege. California has 155,980 square it the second State in size in the Gov. George C. Pardee. men had rushed to California. A a Constitution adopted (November moted from a military district to a passing through the intermediate of the State continued at a rapid maximum productiveness in 1853. from them, but as they declined it soil of marvellous productiveness, State shifted to grain and fruits. ported at $131,690,606, while the 000. tory of some interesting experitution of 1879 was adopted under movement of 1878-80, and shocked ing with details that in the older ture. The innovation worked more and had the unforseen result of depopular vote, under the guise of Legislature submits to the voters form of constitutional amendments, voters from six to a dozen laws in ments, and the voters display sound In this manner the State has for cities, every city of more than to draw its own charter and coninterference by the State Legislaof the State have taken advantage miles of land surface, which makes Union, and reaches some 700 miles from north to south. In the extreme north the country is rugged, and this portion of the State, in common with the high Sierras, is subject to severe winters. Below the mountainous region the climate is mild, the soil of great fertility, and the range of vegetable products greater than in any other part of the United States. The population of California was 1,485,053 in 1901. The year of 1902 brought a considerable access of business prosperity to California. Except for a deficient and badly distributed rainfall in Southern California, the weather proved favorable, and large crops have been harvested in all lines except prunes, and the early deciduous fruits. The grain crop is larger than any of recent years, and the midsummer and Autumn fruit crops proved to be beyond the capacity of the labor supply to handle. The most conspicuous disaster of the year was the sinking of the steamship Walla Walla (3,069 tons), in the early morning hours of January 2, off Cape Mendocino. The Walla Walla, sailing from San Francisco for Puget Sound ports with 62 passengers and a crew of 79, was run down by the French bark Max, and 39 lives were lost. The principal crime of the year was the murder of Nora Fuller, a sixteen-year-old girl, who disappeared January 11, and was found dead in an unfurnished house at No. 2211 Sutter street, San Francisco, on February 8. The house had been rented on January 8 by a man who gave his name as C. B. Hawkins. The following day he bought some cheap bedding and inserted an advertisement for a girl to care for a baby. Nora Fuller answered the advertisement, and received a reply asking her to meet him at a public restaurant. The girl was not afterward seen until her dead body was discovered, and no trace of the murderer has yet been found. On the 8th of January the Union Labor administration of Mayor Schmitz, elected the previous November, took office. The year has been marked by a strong movement to unionize the trades of San Francisco, and the larger cities of the coast. Few trades are to be found that are not now organized. The most spectacular event in this movement was the unionization of the street car men. A nucleus of organization was formed early in the year, but under the system of espionage, established by the Market Street Railway, which controlled the greater part of the lines, the organizers of the union were discharged as fast as they could be discovered. The organization progressed so far that on April 19 a strike was declared, and within three hours the lines of the city were tied up, with the exception of the California street and Union street roads. The men met. signed the rolls of the union, and made demands on the company for a ten-hour day, to be completed within fourteen hours, a minimum pay of 25 cents an hour, and a recognition of the union. The demands of the carmen were supported by public sentiment, and the people walked or rode in express wagons with unfailing good humor. The United Railroads Company, to which the roads had been transferred a few days before the strike, proved unable to operate its lines, and after a week of negotiation acceded substantially to the demands of the men and the roads resumed operations April 26. Two notable gatherings took place in San Francisco during the year the annual conclave of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, June 9 to 14; and the annual encampment of the Knights of Pythias, Aug. 11 to 20. Many thousands of visitors were brought to the coast, and the electric decorations of San Francisco were the most elaborate ever seen outside the great fairs. Labor Day was celebrated with much enthusiasm in all the California cities on September 1. The parade in San Francisco called out 40,000 men, all belonging to unionized trades. The primary elections under the new primary law were held in the cities of the State on August 12. The law worked smoothly, and about half the total vote was brought out. The Republican State convention met in Sacramento, August 25-27, and after a hot struggle named George C. Pardee as candidate for Governor. The Democratic convention was in session at Sacramento September 2 and 3, and headed its State ticket with the name of Franklin K. Lane. A Socialist convention met in San Francisco September 9 and named a ticket headed by G. S. Brower. The Union Labor party voted not to put a State ticket in the field, but named candidates for the State Legislature, and put forward candidates for Congress in the 4th and 5th districts-E. J. Livernash in the former, W. J. Wynn in the latter. These nominations were indorsed by the Democrats. The Democratic State convention adopted a platform denouncing a protective tariff and the trusts as inimical to the best interests of the people; favoring the complete exclusion from all American territory of Chinese; demanding the enactment of laws, State and Federal, prohibiting the issuance of injunctions in labor disputes, infringing upon the rights of free speech, free assemblages and freedom to organize. The plat form indorsed the construction of the Isthmian canal and favored legislation looking to its early completion, favored an eight-hour day for all government employes and the construction of government vessels in navy yards. The platform adopted by the Republican State convention condemned trusts, advocated the interoceanic canal, urged the building of government ships in navy yards and opposed all reciprocity treaties. It gave the heartiest indorsement of the national administration, as well as the administration of Governor Gage. Lables; Submarine. The submarine telegraphs of the world number 1,750. Their aggregate length is nearly 200,000 miles; their total cost is estimated at $275,000,000, and the number of messages annually transmitted over them at more than 6,000,000. All the grand divisions of the earth are now connected by their wires, and from country to country and island to island the thoughts and words of mankind are instantaneously transmitted. Beneath all oceans save the Pacific the universal language which this system has created flows uninterruptedly, and man talks as face to face with his fellow man at the antipodes. Darkest Africa now converses daily with enlightened Europe or America, and the great events of the morning are known in the evening throughout the inhabited world. Adding to the submarine lines the land telegraph systems, by which they are connected and through which they bring interior points of the various continents into instantaneous communication, the total length of telegraph lines of the world is 1,180,000 miles, the length of their single wires, as conductors, 3,800,000 miles, and the total number of messages annually sent over them about 400,000,000, or an average of more than 1,000,000 messages each day. Nearly a score of wires have been laid across the Atlantic, of which no less than thirteen now successfully operate between the United States and Europe, while three others span the comparatively short distance between South America and the African and south European coast lines. Throughout the Indian Ocean, lines connect the Far East with Europe and America by way of the Red Sea, the Mediterranean, the western coast of Europe, and the great trans-Atlantic lines. The Mediterranean is crossed and recrossed in its entire length and breadth by numerous cable lines, and the "Mediterranean of America"the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea-is traversed in all directions by lines which bring its islands and colonies into speaking relations with each other and with South America, Central America the United States, and thence with Europe, Africa, Asia--the whole world. Along the eastern coast of Asia cable lines loop from port to port and island to island, receiving messages overland from eastern Europe by way of the Russia-Siberian land lines and forwarding them, to Japan, China, Australia, New Zealand, the Straits Settlements, Hongkong and the Philippines, and receiving others in return. South America is skirted with cable lines along its entire border save the extreme south, where they are brought into intercommunication by land lines. Along the entire coast of Africa cables loop from place to place and from colony to colony, stretching along the entire circumference and penetrating the interior by land lines at various points. Every body of water lying between the inhabited portions of the earth, with the single exception of the Pacific ocean, has been crossed and recrossed by submarine telegraph lines, but now even this vast expanse of water is to be spanned by electric wires. Already the work of laying the Commercial Pacific cable between San Francisco and Honolulu is well under way, and it will not be many months before messages may be sent by direct communication from any part of the United States to Hawaii, while from that point it is only a matter of time before the company's wires will extend by way of the Midway Islands and the islands of Guam and Luzon to some point on the coast of China. The chief obstacle in the past to the construction of a grand trans-Pacific cable was found in the fact that mid-ocean resting places could not be satisfactorily obtained or arranged for, no single government controlling a sufficient number of suitable landing places to make this seem practicable, in view of the belief that the distance through which messages could be sent and cables controlled was limited. With such landing places as Hawali, Wake Island, Guam and the Philippines, which the United States now possess, no section of a cable stretching from America to Asia and touching at these points would have a length equal to that now in daily operation between France and the United States. The length of the French cable from Brest, France, to Cape Cod, Mass., is 3.250 miles, while the greatest distance from land to land on the proposed Pacific route would be that from San Francisco to Hawaii, 2,089 miles, that from Hawaii to Wake Island being 2,040 miles, from Wake Island to Guam 1,290 miles, from Guam to Manila 1,520 miles, and from Manila to the Asiatic coast 630 miles. While the depth of the Pacific is somewhat greater than that at which any cable has been laid, the difference between its depth and the greatest reached by cables in the Atlantic would be very slight, the cable recently laid from Haiti to the Windward Islands being in 18,000 feet of water, while the greatest depth between San Francisco and Hawall is 18,300 feet, and the greatest depth between Hawaii and Manila is estimated at 19,600 feet, though this estimate is yet to be verified by detailed soundings. The recent survey for a cable between the Pacific coast and Manila justifies the belief that a route can be selected in which the depth will not exceed 20,000 feet, and may not exceed 18,000 feet. The size of the strand which will connect the two continents will be one inch in diameter nearly its entire length, for while it will be necessary to make use of a 2-inch cable near shore, in order to offset any possible danger from accidental strain, it will never exceed that thickness, and will quickly taper off to the diameter of one inch, which will be the regular deep-sea size. The cable, which is being made, is of English manufacture, no long cables having yet been made in any other country, but the insulating cover by which it is protected was manufactured in the United States. In many respects it is similar to the Atlantic cable, although the wire used has 500 pounds of copper to the knot, as against a weight of 200 pounds in the Atlantic strand. The announcement that the negotiation between the government and the Pacific Cable Company has reached a satisfactory conclusion was made by President Roosevelt at Oyster Bay, N. Y., August 9, 1902. The terms of the agreement provided: (1) That the company has not received any exclusive concession, such as would exclude any other company formed in the United States from obtaining the privilege of landing its cable on the coasts of China, or connecting with other cable lines, and said company will not become associated with a concern having any such exclusive concession. (2) That the company's cable shall touch at no other than American terri tory on the way to the Chinese Empire. The line from the Philippines to China shall be constructed and operated independently of all foreign companies. (3) That the charge shall not exceed 50 cents per word between San Francisco and Honolulu and $1 per word between San Francisco and China. That the rate to Honolulu shall be reduced to 35 cents per word within two years, and that no more than half-rate shall ever be charged for governmental messages. (4) That the United States Government or its agents shall have priority in the transmission of cablegrams. (5) That the United States shall at all times have the right to purchase the cable lines, property and effects of the company at an appraised value, to be ascetained by disinterested persons, two to be selected by the Postmaster-General, two by the company or concern interested, and the fifth by the four previously selected. (6) That the Government of the United States shall have authority to assume full control of the said cable when at war or when war is threatened. (7) That all contracts entered into by the said company with foreign governments for the transmission of messages by the said cable shall be void when the United States is engaged in war. (8) That the United States shall have authority to sever, at its discretion, all branches which may be connected with the main cable line during war or threatened war. (9) That the operators and employes of said company (above the grade of laborer), after said cable shall have been laid, shall be exclusively American citizens. (10) That citizens of the United States shall stand on an equal footing as regards the transmission of messages over said company's lines with citizens or subjects of any other country with which said cable may connect. (11) That the company shall agree to maintain an effective speed of transmission over the main cable route from California to Luzon of not less than twenty-five words per minute. (12) That the cable laid shall be of the best manufacture. (13) That ample repair service shall be maintained. (14) That the line shall be kept open for daily business, and all messages in the order of priority be transmitted according to the time of receipt. (15) That no liability shall be assumed by the Government of the United States by virtue of any control or censorship which it may exercise over said line in event of war or disturbance. (16) The United States Government does not insure the company against any landing rights claimed by any company in respect to the insular possessions. (17) That the consent hereby granted shall be subject to any future action by Congress or by the President. The following table embraces the entire system of submarine cables of the world: CABLES IN PRIVATE OWNERSHIP. [From report of the International Bureau of Telegraph Administration.] 9,554 Direct Spanish Telegraph Company. Eastern and South African Telegraph Eastern Extension Australasia and China 34 Eastern Telegraph Company. 18,153 93 39,473 Anglo-Spanish-Portuguese system. System west of Malta. Anglo-American Telegraph Company. Commercial Cable Company. Trans-Atlantic system Waterville, Ire-1 land, to Canso, Nova Scotia Canso, Nova Scotia, to New York. Direct United States Cable Company. Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Rye Beach, Western Union Telegraph Company. 141 Cove, near Penzance, England, to Dover Bay, Dover Bay, Nova Scotia, to New York. Campagnie Francaise des Cables Tele- Brest, France, to Cape Cod, Mass. Cape Cod, Mass., to New York. African Direct Telegraph Company. Carcavellos, near Lisbon, Portugal, to Central and South American Telegraph 32 12,102 Italo-Greek system. Austro-Greek system. Greek system. Turko-Greek system. Turkish system. Egypto-European system. Egyptian system. Egypto-Indian system. Cape Town to St. Helena; St. Helena to Europe and Azores Telegraph Company.. 8 2,943 1 337 27 17.260 Mexican Telegraph Company. River Plate Telegraph Company. United States and Haiti Telegraph and West African Telegraph Company, West Coast of America Telegraph Company 1,979 24 4,639 Canals of the World. Commerce owes its birth to maritime peoples, and its mighty development in modern times is due, more than to any other agency, to the facilities for transportation of goods offered by the oceans and seas which cover so large a proportion of the surface of the globe, and the waterways which extend inland from their shores. So valuable is this agency that private business enterprise and government policies have been marked by the evolution and execution of plans for supplementing and extending the work of nature in the creation of such highways for the ever-increasing commerce of the world. Before the days of the railroad the canal was the most important factor in both domestic and foreign trade relations, and its influence in the creation of new towns and the development of old ones was proportionately as great as that of the railroad is in these later times. The marvellous growth of this country in the region of the lakes had been well begun through the commercial facilities afforded by canals before a rail had been laid, and even before the locomotive had advanced beyond the experimental stage. As early as the year 1822 the State of New York had completed an artificial waterway from Lake Champlain to the head waters of the Hudson River, and this, with the other canals constructed and owned by the State, has been one of the great sources of the growth and prosperity of the Empire State. The commercial value of the Great Lakes is very largely enhanced by the benefit their shipping interests derive from canal navigation. Of the many canals which have been constructed in the United States more than a score are ship canals, several of them existing for the purpose of making more available certain natural waterways of which they are extensions. The greater number, however, are designed for boats, barges and other light craft, and of this number some have not been in use during recent years. It is by no means certain that these last mentioned will be finally abandoned altogether, although it is not deemed possible to operate them profitably under present conditions of canal navigation. With improved methods of propulsion and a possibility of navigating them with larger boats their enlargement and rehabilitation might be undertaken. THE GREAT SHIP CANALS OF THE WORLD. Canal. Completed. Connecting. Suez Cronstadt and St. Petersburg. Corinth Manchester 1869 Mediterranean & Red Seas 1893 Gulfs of Corinth & Aegina Mersey (The selection is that of the United States Treasury Department.) 90 Kaiser Wilhelm Elbe and Trave.. Welland Sault Ste. Marie (American). Sault Ste. Marie (Canadian). 1895 Baltic and North Seas. Minimum width, or width at bottom given wherever possible, 1Cost of construction to State. The project of creating a waterway between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, obviating the necessity for the long voyage around South America, is to be carried out by the United States Government, and a dream of centuries has been made certain of realization. On June 28, 1902, President Roosevelt placed his approving signature upon a bill which assures the construction of an American canal. The bill, now a law, charges the President to cause to be constructed a canal to extend from ocean to ocean by what is known as the Panama route. It further charges that if the President cannot satisfy himself as to the title of the new Panama Canal Company and as to concessions and rights from the Government of Colombia, he shall cause a canal to be constructed by the Nicaragua route. For nearly four hundred years the project of making a short cut between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by means of a ship canal across the isthmus connecting North and South America has been almost constantly agitated. The existence of the Pacific was discovered in 1513 by Vasco Munez de Balboa, governor of a Spanish province in Darien, who crossed the isthmus with that result. Frequent exploration was made from that period in efforts to discover a natural water connection between the two oceans and the hope of finding it, abandoned within the sixteenth century, was temporarily revived as late as 1771 by statements, which proved delusive, that a river had been found flowing from one to the other. When during the earlier period of this history it became evident that no natural waterway existed, there immediately followed the suggestion of an artificial channel. Meanwhile a land route from ocean to ocean was laid out across the isthmus, some time between 1517 and 1520, the first settlement at the site of the old town of Panama, destroyed by Morgan's buccaneers early in 1671, being made in the year 1517. This old town, which became a city in 1521, by decree of the Spanish king, was the terminal port of the land route at the Pacific end. The Atlantic port was established first at Nombre de Dios. that point being abandoned for Porto Bello, a more westerly point, in 1597. During the century the growth of the isthmian commerce was such that Panama, at that time located six or seven miles easterly from the site of the present city of that name. became a place of great mercantile importance and was regarded as the toll-gate between western Europe and castern Asia. The desirability of a water route from sea to sea became more and more apparent in view of this commercial development, and Charles V. of Spain is credited with having directed, as early as 1520, that a survey should be made to ascertain the feasibility of an artificial waterway across the isthmus of Panama. In 1534 a royal decree was issued authorizing a careful examination by experienced men, with such a project in view, but the King's ardor in this direction was dampened by an unfavorable report from Pascual Andagoya, the Governor, who suggested that the opening of a canal through the isthmus would be "in opposition to the will of the Almighty, who had placed this barrier in the way of navigation between the two oceans." Temporarily abandoned at that time, the project of an interoceanic canal was repeatedly revived during the centuries that followed. In 1779 a survey was made to determine the practicability of a canal route by way of Lake Nicaragua, but the report made thereon was not of a favorable character. The idea of a canal across the isthmus by the Panama route took its most practical form in 1876, with the organization in Paris of the Societe Civile Internationale du Canal Interoceanique, for which surveys and explorations looking to the construction of a ship canal were made by Lieutenant L. N. B. Wyse, of the French navy, who obtained for his country in 1878 a concession from the Government of Colombla, under which the construction of an interoceanic canal could be undertaken along the Panama route. dinand de Lesseps, who had achieved fame by his work in connection with the Suez Canal, was interested in this project, and became president of the new company formed in 1879 under the name of the Compagule Fer |