The New York herald., 1879-08-25
The Trouble in San Francisco.

mob and the armed police of great city.
Nobody who had read the news given IN
Sundays HERALD would have been greatly
surprised, however much all would have
been panied, to learn to-day that story OF
Kalloch's death had spread last night, and
that the wilder elements, stirred to the
last stages of fury by the extravagant
hopes of the sand lot eloquence, had
stormed the prison and hanged the assassin
De Young, and that the fire of the militia
and the police had strewed the streets with
corpses Expectation glanced in that
direction, for every one is aware what fierce
passions have been stirred in the kind OF
social war that is now waged in California
under the name of political canvass, and,
rightly or wrongly, the mob of our Pacific
metropolis has the reputation OF being at
once more savage and more resolute than
mobs generally in other cities. Happily we
are able to record q story SO much in con-
trast with that imagination that the coun-
try generally may be congratulated upon it.
An appeal to violence in the height of an
embittered political agitation does not al
ways cast an issue upon the chances OF
general savage fight and butchery. On the
contrary, first blow often sobers excited
men. Between the use Of even the fiercest
denunciation and the use OF deadly
weapons there yawns chasm that men
capable of reasoning do not pass without
moment for deliberation as to whether the
case in hand is worth it, as to their prepa-
ration and as to where they may possibly
stand when it is over. Men who are of real
value in q conflict are the sort who measure
the game, however hastily, before they
plunge in, and if in the moment when the
mind is engaged in that process happy
suggestion tends to dlssuade, for reasons
that can be distinctly and Immediately
perceived, that suggestion is well deliv-
cred blow put in while the iron is hot. So
it happened in San Francisco; and the
rational hesitation of the cooler heads
which gave time for Kearney to urge with
good reason that the people should be
calm saved them a bloody night Kear-
ney reasoned we'll for the first
time in his history, SO far as it
is commonly known. His declaration
that in ten days time the government
would be in their own hands, and that to
wait for that result was the easiest and best
way to get De Young in their power, was
legitimate application to the case Of the
logic of universal suffrage and an adroit
appeal to their confidence in their pow er
at the polls. 1t is quaint surprise, and o
pleasant one, to find an agitator who has
threatened communistic slaughter for years
thus using his great influence to further
the decision Of an aggravated quarrel by
the ballot rather than otherwise.
Extracts from the San Francisco papers,
given in our news columns, exhibit the
spective positions and careers Of the assas-
sin and his victim and of the source of this
crime in kind of journalism that is dis
grace to any city in which it fourishes.
Kalloch is, perhaps, not exactly the sort of
man that public, justly sensitive on
moral points, would care to see advanced
to important offices Of dignity or trust.
Much has been said against him, especially
with regard to his neglect of the seventh
commandment, and he was once tried
on charge of that nature, and nos
found guilty. In view OF the very little at
tention that political parties give to moral
attributes in candidates it is not to be be-
lieved that this man was virulently opposed
on account of his vices. They were the
points that an extreme opposition laid hold
upon to distort, pervert and exaggerate, in
order to make the mans very name ON
offence in the eyes of voters. 1t cannot be
said that it is improper to give the public
an honest and sincere account of the past
life of man who is andidate for Office.
Voters have right to know the record
of the man they are asked to vote for,
and newspapers have right to give them
within fair limits the information neces-
sary to guide their suffrages. But between
that and bounding a man through life on
the allegation of an offence for which he
was tried, and which was never actually
proved there is n wide difference. Against
Kalloch in this case the San Francisco
Chronicle seems to have practised in an cx-
ere this excited the disgust and horror OF
the public in many an American city, and
that in general way is an exclusive pos
session OF the party papers.
Make a man a candidate Tor an important
public Office and give him up to the fiends
of detraction, scandal, vituperation, vili-
fication, and to the widest flights Of the
practsed calumniator's imagination. Draw
up category of all the vile offences, out
rageous crimes, unclean thoughts and acts,
and attribute them all to him without
scruple, with day and date. Throw mud
enough some of it will stick" That is the
whole theory and practice of politics with
journalists of the kind designated; and this
sort of journalism was put in operation
by very bravo Of the press to