Rumors Of Golden
Chances Have Brought In A Steady Stream Of Incompetents From All Regions
And From All Strata Of Social Life.
From the common tramp to the
inventor of "perpetual motions" in mechanics or in social science, is a
long step in the moral scale, but both are alike in their eagerness to
escape from the "competitive social order" of the East, in which their
abilities found no recognition.
Whoever has deservedly failed in the
older states is sure at least once in his life to think of redeeming his
fortunes in California. Once on the Pacific slope the difficulties in
the way of his return seem insurmountable. The dread of the winter's
cold is in most cases a sufficient reason for never going back. Thus San
Francisco, by force of circumstances, has become the hopper into which
fall incompetents from all the world, and from which few escape. The
city contains more than four hundred thousand people. Of these, a vast
number, thirty thousand to fifty thousand, it may be, have no real
business in San Francisco. They live from hand to mouth, by odd jobs
that might be better done by better people; and whatever their success
in making a living, they swell the army of discontent, and confound all
attempts to solve industrial problems. In this rough estimate I do not
count San Francisco's own poor, of which there are some but not many,
but only those who have drifted in from the outside. I would include,
however, not only those who are economically impotent, but also those
who follow the weak for predatory ends.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 16 of 23
Words from 3976 to 4244
of 5818
