Daily Los Angeles herald., 1878-01-31

Tho HERALD is a devoted party
paper. We think that in
party machinery all the fine and
effective aspirations of a people
find their agency. There may be
fugelmen and rank and file, front
men and rear men, but thorough
expression of purpose is only at
tainabls through party discipline.
When our opponents have power,
We brace ourselves for endurance
merely. We expect nothing from
them. Let them, by all means,
give all the offices, all the consid-
GRAFTON, to their own supporters. If
they have any sense at all they will
do this, and we know they do do
1t. Trimmers and tempsrizsrs-
fellows who blow alternately hot
and cold-never win in the warm
and sauguine game of politics. If
the Democratic party succeeds in
getting hold Of the National Gov
ernment-and we rather think
that something extraordinary will
have to happen to prevent their
doing just that-they will be ex-
psctsd to inaugurate a policy as
different from that of their oppo-
nents 80 white is from black. The
Republican party will not drop the
wand Of power-the scepter of au-
th0sesy until that party has be-
como 30 palsied that it can no
longer WELD it. When they de-
seconded to stealing the Presidency
they confessed that they had
reached this stage. The Demo-
cratic party to-day is in the
ascendancy In California. The fact
that the Democracy can hardly be,
and won't submit to be, cheated for
. second time, out of their ascend
ancy in the nation, should assure US
aplomb, confidence, and not only the
prestige, but the actuality, of sue
,cess. But we must remember
that the Democratic party is dis
tInctively the peoples party, or it
IL nothing. The patty has always
antagonizsd the silk-stocking ele-
ment of the United States, and the
moment we drop this shibboleth of
victory we are undone.
Not Kearney, but the Democrat
ic party, is the representative of
the national workingman. 1t has
been so ever since the time of its
founder, Thomas Jefferson, who
antagonIzed the monarchical and
aristocratic nonsense of old John
Adams and his New England
school. The Democratic party is
essentially the opponent of kid
gloves and of the insolence of capt.
tai, with its accompaniment of
"cod-fish" aristocracy.
Such being the case, the people
of California expect two things
from the Democratic party, with
cut which, though we are prepared
to advocate its resonant and inspir-
iting principles, we are not prepared
to promise 1t success in this State.
This servitor and guardian of the
peoples rights is expected, by the
horny-handed men who compose
the great bulk of the following OF
the party, to give us fair fares
and frs.ghts bill and to repeal
sUy legislation that looks like a
'gag law" and which, even in
seeming, sympathizes with the old
alien and sedition laws that New
England inflicted on the country
during the Presidency of the elder
Adams.
We have no hesitation in saying
that We are friendly to, and an ad-
miref of, the men who have built
the superb system of Pacific Coast
railways. The most expanded adj
jectives would hardly do Justice
to their energy, perseverance and
ingenuity. We are willing to let
them live and enjoy all legitimate
emoluments. On the other hand,
we would not suffer them to lay
the weight of the thinnest twig in
the shape of oppression on the loins
of the laboring and productive
classes Of this State. IF their pur-
pose lie oppression, we would chain
them up as we would bulldog, 50
that not cry of pain should be
wrung from the people. The DEM
ocratic Legislature - overwhelm-
ingly Democratic in both branches
must give US fares and freights
bill fair to the people and to the
Railways. There must be no Jug
gle of its passage in the House and
failure in the Senate, through any
legislative lsgerdsmain. Both the
people and the Railways must be
dealt with fairly and equitably.
The people are the masters of the
Railways, and Of all the corpora
lions, and that fact must be assert
ed and made apparent by the pres
ent Legislature.
Any well-meaning legislative
body may commit q mistake. In
duenced by the panic, the Legisla-
ture made q grevlous mistake in
passing, precipitately, the Incen-
diary Act. That Act should be re-
pealed; and, at the same time that