ack country, and the retort was that it needed
no back country, its harbor would command commerce. The fallacy of this
assumption lay in the forgetfulness of the fact that the profitable and
peculiar exports of Southern California must go East by rail, and reach
a market in the shortest possible time, and that the inhabitants look to
the Pacific for comparatively little of the imports they need. If the
Isthmus route were opened by a ship-canal, San Diego would doubtless
have a great share of the Pacific trade, and when the population of that
part of the State is large enough to demand great importations from the
islands and lands of the Pacific, this harbor will not go begging. But
in its present development the entire Pacific trade of Japan, China, and
the islands, gives only a small dividend each to the competing ports.
For these developments this fine harbor must wait, but meantime the
wealth and prosperity of San Diego lie at its doors. A country as large
as the three richest New England States, with enormous wealth of mineral
and stone in its mountains, with one of the finest climates in the
world, with a million acres of arable land, is certainly capable of
building up one great seaport town. These million of acres on the
western slope of the mountain ranges of the country are geographically
tributary to San Diego, and almost every acre by its products is
certain to attain a high value.

The end of the ridiculous speculation in lots of 1887-88 was not so
disastrous in the loss of money invested, or even in the ruin of great
expectations by the collapse of fictitious values, as in the stoppage of
immigration. The country has been ever since adjusting itself to a
normal growth, and the recovery is just in proportion to the arrival of
settlers who come to work and not to speculate. I had heard that the
"boom" had left San Diego and vicinity the "deadest" region to be found
anywhere. A speculator would probably so regard it. But the people have
had a great accession of common-sense. The expectation of attracting
settlers by a fictitious show has subsided, and attention is directed to
the development of the natural riches of the country. Since the boom San
Diego has perfected a splendid system of drainage, paved its streets,
extended its railways, built up the business part of the town solidly
and handsomely, and greatly improved the mesa above the town. In all
essentials of permanent growth it is much better in appeara