The Shasta courier., 1868-06-06
Democratic Trickery.

During the last political campaign in this
State, the Democracy succeeded in gaining
the support of q large body of laboring men.
by pledges to secure the passage of law
making eight hours legal day s work. Dem
ocratic papers, speakers and candidates
painted the advantages which laboring men
would derive from such a law in glowing
colors, declaring that under its provisions the
laborer would not only continue to receive the
same wages for eight hours labor that he
formerly did for ten, but that he would have
so much the more time to devote to Measure
or mental improvement. The Democracy
succeeded in the contest. and in time the
Legislature convened but by that time the
pledges to working men had so far been for
gotten that it was only through the strenu-
Gus exertions of the industrial leagues of San
Francisco, and the liberal expenditure of
hard earned money, that the Legislature was
finally prevailed upon to pass an Eight Hour
Law.
Immediately after the law went into oper.
alton laboring men realized that they had
been badly sold, and learned, too late, that
the Democratic leaders only wanted their
votes, and cared nothing whatever for their
interests or desires. The Democratic Board
of State Capitol Commissioners, of which
Governor Haightis member, having control
of&he work on the new State Capitol at Sac
ramento, passed an order reducing the
amount of wages paid in proportion to the
number of hours employed. This led to
strike among the indignant workmen, and
the Commissioners were finally compelled to
agree that the rate of wages should remain
unchanged until the material then on hand
should be used up, at which time the wages
of the workmen will be reduced about one
fifth.
The Democratic vineyard owners and street
contractors of Los Angeles have lately fol-
lowed in the wake of the Capitol Commits
sioners, and reduced the wages of their work.
men to almost starvation prices. The editor
OF the Los Angeles Star, strong Democratic
paper, having harped extensively during the
campaign on the benefits which he affirmed
laboring men would derive from the enact
ment of an Eight Hour Law, feels himself
occupying rather an uncomfortable position
in view of the action of his party, and in or
der to place himself right before the betrayed
and furious working men of his county,
makes the following admissions, which GER
tainly convict his party of base treacherv
towards an honorable and deserving class of
men:
The eight-hour system was all well enough
as a party shibboeth but the moment that
the working class insisted on it as a reality,
we find all kinds of unloOked-for difficulties
interposed. The fact is, neither of the par
ties is strong enough to offend any class in
terest and the Democrats find it very diff
fcult, if not an utterly impracticable task, to
reconcile their political theories on this sub
ject with their actual practice. Nearly every
contractor in this city is Democrat, and
every one of them has refused to act upon the
eight hour law in the spirit in which the
laborers understood it was to be enforced -
Hence, we find that street work has been
altogether at stand still, and thousands of
laborers idle. They feel themselves the
victims of a deception. They were permitted,
if not led, to believe, during the canvass,
that the shortening by law of the period of
days labor, did not also involve the abridge-
ment of the prevailing pay for a days work;
and they very naturally ask the meaning of
that kind of political ratiocination which i'm
plies one thing and means another. They
cannot see that it required great political
struggle to divide a day from tenths into
eighths, both in time and money: and it
certainly needed no such ghost from the
grave as they have just evoked. to tell them
that if the law contemplated nothing further
than this, they had been most egregiou,ly
fooled. But what can they do about it?-
Absolutely nothing. Through the influence
of capital, the market is being rapidly
stocked with unskilled labor, and the strikers
will have to 60 to the wall.
Thus we find that all the Democratic pa
rade about befriending the laboring mau has
vanished in smoke, and political demagogues
are the only parties who have received any
substantial benefits from the Eight Hour
Juror; their Anti-Coolie hobby has proved as
great humbug as the Eight Hour Law
Haight and other Democratic dignitaries sit
| 1T uduuucto gwen III HOnOr OF CllDeSe En-
bassadors, and indulge in congratulatory
speeches on the subject of cultivating closer
and more intimate relations with China
while their anti-Chinese constituents are left
to fight out their battles against the hordes
of Mongolia unassisted by their chiefs.
Now that the peoples eyes are fully open,
and the mask of hypocrisy is stripped from
the faces of the deceitful demagogues who
lead and control the Democratic party of this
State, it is to be hoped they will hereafter
ignore such leadership, and refuse to raly
again under such deceptive banners.
! STANToN.-Secretary Stanton having re-
signed on the announcement of the result of
impeachment, the Senate voted him resolu
tion of thanks for his faithful administration
of the War Department. General Schofeld
has been appointed Secretary of War in
Stanton's place.
END OF IMPEACHMENT.-On the 26th ult
the Senate voted on the second and third i'm