But if they belong to us, we also belong to them.  If their traditions belong to us, so also our tradition belongs to them.  We should simply strive that California shall be given her proper proportionate place in the history of the country.  We do not find fault with them for having taken the means of heralding abroad their story — we commend them for it.  We point to their activity so as to arouse our own people from their amazing inaction.  What have we of California done to collect, preserve and diffuse information relating to the history of our State?  And what have other commonwealths done?

The California State Historical Society, first organized in 1853, and incorporated in 1876, was in active existence from 1886 to 1894, and published some valuable historical material, including Father Palou’s “Noticias,” Doyle’s “History of the Pious Fund,” Willey’s “History of the College of California” and some interesting papers of Martin Kellogg, George Davidson, Bernard Moses, William Carey Jones and T. H. Hittell.  From that time it has had no active existence.  There has not been a meeting of its board of directors since 1893, and since then most of them have died.  It has no maps and no manuscripts, and its library of 500 printed volumes was stored away in San Francisco, in the basement cellar of the gentleman who is still nominally its president, until two years ago.  It never owned a building in which to do its work, was never endowed, and to all intents and purposes has been dead for twenty years.

When we look beyond the Rockies, however, we begin to appreciate the work that is being done by the State historical societies organized for the purpose of collecting, preserving and diffusing historical information concerning their respective states.  The statistics outside California, unless otherwise indicated, are down to 1905.  The Massachusetts and Pennsylvania societies are prototypes of the privately organized and endowed organizations of the Eastern states, which, without official patronage, have attained strength, dignity and a high degree of usefulness, while Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Kansas similarly stand for the State-supported institutions of the West.  Twelve societies or departments own their own halls — those valued at $100,000 or over, being Wisconsin, $610,000; Iowa, $400,000; Pennsylvania (1910), $340,000; Massachusetts, $225,000; and Kansas, $200,000.  Thirteen are housed in their respective State capitols, seven are quartered in State universities, and six are in other public buildings.  The largest State appropriations are:  Wisconsin (1910), $31,000; Minnesota, $20,000; and Iowa (1910), $12,000.  The Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin societies are, of course, the wealthiest in endowments; possessing, respectively (1912), $420,600, $170,000, and (1910), $63,000 in vested funds.  The largest libraries are Pennsylvania (1910), 285,000 titles; Wisconsin (1910), 332,000; Massachusetts (1912), 170,000; Kansas (1910), 191,000; and New Hampshire (1910), 117,500.