Litchfield enquirer., 1879-05-15
Capital and the California Constitution

tion, as the work of Kearney and the 'ssan,
 lot" politicians. It will hardly do to say tha new, since it's adoption by the votes princi pally of the farmers as against miners, capital ists, and regular politicians combined. N doubt, however, the farmers had much secre help from the workingmen, especially in SaI l Francisco. The 10, 900 majority against ths constitution which was so confidently expect ed in that city that it was telegraphed all ovel the country as an assured fact, dwindled on actual count to less than 2,0O0, while the solid vote of the farmers settled the question of its adoption notwithstanding the adverse vote oi the mining districts.
 We shall not claim that the California con- temptble bitternesses, even but it owes it's Ori- gin, not to the misleading tongue of the dema- gogue, but to the harsh tyranny of the capital ist California has more and worse millionaires than any other state in the Union. They are men who have grown rich by methods which in mere stable society are considered dis honest. They are able, but coarse and hard, after the manner of self-made aristocrats. Their wives are vulgar and estentatious tea de- gree that has gained them an unenviable noto- riety in such Eastern. or European cities as have been 'graced" with their presence. The corporations of California, like all other growths of the country, are colossal but they are unscruplelous and grasping, beyond even the experience of recent years in the East The Central Pacific, no less corrupt than the Union Pacific in it's inception and early man. agement, has swallowed up all the other roads in the State and the policy of Jay Gould, the most interruptions railroad magnate of the East, is an honest conservatism compared with the railroad policy of California. Its mining morality is that of den of thieves, and it's stock -jobbing lacks even the honesty of the average gambling he'll.
 It is against such rule as this that the new California constitution rises up in protest. Ii seeks to place the railroad in strict subordina- tion to board of commissioners clothed with dictatorial powers. It prohibits stock watering, discriminating charges, and fuctuating rates. It prohibits special acts of incorporation, pro- vides for minority representation on corporate boards' and makes trustees and directors per sonally liable for sums stolen from the corpor- ations they oversee (some reports say, stock holders liable for corporate debts). It makes lobbying felony. It taxes, twice or thrice over, it is said, corporate property and large incomes. It prohibits sales of stock on "mar- gin, land seeks to break up that ruinous love of speculation which is fast making Califernians a race of stock gamblers.
 As regards the Chinese, the new constitution is about as evil as the wit of Kearney could make it. The officers of public or private corporations are forbidden to employ Mongoli- ans. In fact Chinaman is viewed by the con- stitution-maker of California much as the Connecticut legislature regards the dog or the tramp.
 We are anxious to see what may be the ef- feet of this attempt to curb the interruptions ambition of capital by restrictive legislation. The result of the Granger legislation in what are now our middle States, is not reassuring. Some of the experiments proposed Tn this new species of fundamental law are doomed to failure. Others may succeed; they are ex- periments we are glad to see tried, and to see tried in California.
 Among Eastern papers the New York Times seems to see most clearly into the occasions of this new California departure
 "In California corporate monopoly has ac- quired proportions, and asserts itself with an insolence unknown elsewhere Among rail. roads it's type is the Central Pacific; among banks the Bank f California. The so-called Wcatha m other forms and the shsmefsGn Sses ot and trickery with whicl, .carriaa .,,t And the stock speculation of San Francisco has frauds peculiarly it's own. It is necessary to remember these things when trying to ac. count for the condition of public opinion which has made the California Constitution possible
 The Fifty Dollar Bill case is finally closed by the failure of the grand jury to find true bill against Merritt. The facts are briefly these A discharged colored sailor offered $50 bill, as he says, to Merritt, clerk at the New York Metropolitan Hotel, for change. Merritt hand ed him back four quarters, claiming that it was only dollar bill. A fracas arose. and Williams was taken off by the police. He then lodged complaint against Merritt, on trial of which the facts looked very ugly fol that high-toned person. Then suddenly came forward negro washerwoman, with fifty dollar bill which she swore Williams gave her by mistake for one, in payment for washing.
 Williams was still unconvinced; the magis trate also disbeleved the story and the case was sent up to the grand jury. Here Merritt gets his discharge, justly, as most believe. Still there is mystery. Williams also gets his discharge For, though plainly innocent of crime, he has been all the while detained as witness, while the alleged criminal was out on bail. In finding his accusation false, the grand jury deliver him from jail; had they found it true, his imprisonment would have continued till the case was reached in the crim. inal court. Such are some of the queer meth ods of justice.
 The uselessness of trying to muzzle the pro ss in this age is shown by the failure of the Rus. sian police to suppress the chief Nihilist paper. This is published regularly every fortnight, at 4.50 year. It has been year in circulation says the Springfield Republican, and goes every where:
 High officers of the state find them folded ir their official papers, soldiers come across them in their knapsacks, they are picked up in the imperial palaces, copies are suddenly discover ed Tn the police station, literally no place in St. Petersburg is free from them, but editor, publication office and carriers remain a pug. zling secret to the police. The place where two printing presses were concealed was be- trayed by one of the carriers, and the next num- Der of the paper announced the carriers sen. tence and his execution. He had been stabbed in his hotel. An editorial in the same issue spoke of the inconvenience" to the editor of having lost his editorial portfolio" by his be- trayal, but the loss the article went on to say, was avenged.
 The secret, yet irresistible power of this strange Russian society seems to take us back four or five centuries to the time of the "Holy Vehme," the terrible Westphalian tribunal, Scott has immortalized in ''Anne of Geiers. tein g