Daily Los Angeles herald., 1878-04-18
Hsw Is WORKS.

Recent attempts to sell real es-
tate in San Francisco have simply
demonstrated that it has no mar
ket value, for there are absolutely
no bidders. This was the expert
ence of Mr.. Hyde, the assignee, the
other day, when he attempted a
public sale of the real estate of the
defunct Pioneer Bank. We are not
obliged to 60 far to discover the
cause of this anomalous state of
things. The meetings on the sand
lots tell the whole story. People
do not want real estate in city
threatened with blood and arson.
The most lamentable feature about
it all is that when men of means
are afraid to purchase real estate.
They are also too cautious to build.
Nothing Is said to be so timid as
million dollarsexcept ten or twenty
millions. When people of wealth
neither buy property nor build
houses the effect on the working
man is immediate and disastrous.
His employment ceases and he is
brought to want. The compensa-
ton which the laboring man has
received for his deprivation and
lack of work is the pleasure of list.
ening to the dulcet accents of Mr..
Dennis Kearney. This is a very
sweet privilege to those who like
it, but it hardly repays his hearers
for killing the goose that laid the
golden egg. We are perfectly of
opinion that the insolence of CAPT.
tai should be rebuked and the dig
nifty of labor asserted and main
tanned, but it should be done tenn
perately and firmly, in the spirit
of reform and not in that of ven-
geance and agrarianism. The work.
ing man, by listening to violent
counsels, and inspiring the capt.
talitalist with downright fear, has,
as we have said, brought about the
paralysis which to-day exists in
San Francisco. The late Mark
Hopkins was a marked instance of
this. That gentleman was build
ing one of the finest and costliest
houses on the centinent-a house
which was to have cost several
millions of dollars. Away back in
September Kearney held one of his
meetings on Mob Hill. His har-
angue was inflammatory and abu-
sive in the extreme. He breathed
thres tenings of fire and slaughter,
and the yells of his supporters AZ
frIghted Mr.. Hopkins, at that time
in poor health. Tne next morning
he went down to the architect and
told him to suspend work, that he
could not feel justified in going on
with an expensive house which
might be burned down by Il mob
before the finishing touches were
put upon it. That resolution caused
two hundred mechanics to be
thrown out of work. Mr.. Hopkins
can scarcely be blamed by reason
able man for his determination
His argument was that if the house
must go down by fire it was econo-
my to let it burn down liz an UNI
finished state. 1t stands to-day
precisely in the plight it was left
in last September. Mark Hopkins
is dead, and those who know him
well say that the agitation of that
night was the real cause of his
death. When man of not very
robust physique at best reaches
sixty-three or sixty-four years of
age, il does not take much to kill
him. II it be indeed true that he
died from that cause, the whole In
cidect perfectly illustrates the in
ter-dependent character of capital
and labor, how easy it is for each
to injure the other, and how like a
boomerang an excess committed
by either capitalist or workingman
may react against the violator of
the unwritten but emphatic bond
of harmony which should exist be-
tween them, and which should lead
each to be forbearing to the other.
Both the man of many dollars and
the man of many wants may learn
a pregnant lesson from the episode.