Daily Los Angeles herald., 1879-04-16
the Pity ore.

phenomenal times as those which
characterized the first French Rev.
olution form an exception. Such
atrocities as marked that period of
epochal change, in which the me-
dleval foundations Of the nation
were disrupted as by an earth
quake, are of rare occurrence. They
could have been the outcome Of
nothing short of ages Of feudal op.
preston of the kind Of which
Mlchelet has collected number of
striking examples. For the mid.
die class. and more especially for the
poor, any we'll organized human
being has q profound sympathy. 1t
10 the attractive popularity OF the
years which have intervened since
Jean Jacques Rousseau grew to
manhood and the present day that
they are marked by q steadily in.
creasing regard for man as man.
That momentous cycle has been
distinguished by the advancement
Of multitudes of the poor and lowly
to wealth, honors and dignified sta.
tlon.
We have always cherished keen
interest In the poor. The personal
sympathies of the editor of this pa
per verge SO closely upon commun-
ism that we should have to enter
into . lengthy explanation to the
average citizen to persuade him
that we at teart only harbofed de-
votion to a robust Democracy.
Identified in feeling with the
Workingmen, we have the less re-
serve IN telling them that to a great
extent they are themselves respon-
sible for the hard times that are
now wringing their withers. By
encouraging men like Denis Kear-
ney In their mad assaults upon the
employers of labor and upon law,
order and decency, they have para
lyxed all enterprise and frightened
the purse.strinas Of those who
could and would have furnished
them lucrative employment. We
venture the statement that there is
not q bank ia California to- day that
has not invested at least portion
of Its assets in four per cent. bonds
Of the United States government
There is hardly q wealthy private
Citizen that has not followed suit
These nsn orc perfectly sensible o.
the Inconvenience of having to &C
cept such a low rate of interest
But they reason that four per cent
Ii better than nothing, and they
are determined to have something
handy upon which they can realize
ut moments notice.
Had 1t not been for the clamors
Of the Kearneyites, much of this
money would have been loaned out
to the farmer, the merchant and
the manufacturer, to the benefit Of
all parties to ths transaction and
with the result OF stimulating
trade.
Much Of it would have been en-
ployed In building houses, erecting
manufactures, digging bitches,
erecting fumes, Increasing facili.
ties for irrigation and quickening
the life blood Of enterprise through
out the State, giving employment
to thousands on thousands of con.
tented laborers.
Much of what remained would
have been employed in giving
value to real estate. Instead of be.
ing drug and mere instrumen.
tality for facilitating the exactions
of the tax-gatherer, as now, il
would have passed from hand to
hand at fair prices.
We defy any one to point out @
single element of prosperity the
State Of California, as a whole,
lacked last year. We admit that,
the year before, the case was diff
ferent. Then drouth overshad
owed everything and Denis Kear.
ney began to agitate. If an expe.
dient could have been discovered
for shutting his ponderous jaws We
should long ago have regained tho
plane Of prosperity. But the CAPT
tAlist has done nothing since Denil
Kearney began to talk of hemI
and confiagrations, and the labor
ing man has never got his hea,
fairly erect since this marplot ap
peared before the City Hall in Sal
Francisco and rendered thousan'
men to work at one dollar a day
That proposition stabbed the Work
ingmen between the third and fiftl
ribs, and Is the real cause, in con
motion with the caution will
which his violent harangues in
spired the rich, Of the distress
and paralysis from which all hav'
suffered and are now suffering.
To compIicate the Ills which ar,
directly traceable to Kearney, W,
are now threatened with an over
siadowing calamity, plainly refer
able to a profound Difference to th
violence born Of the Sand Lot, Il
ths shape of new Constitution
which Is revolutionary and radica
to an alarming degree. No maj
can truthfully gainsay the nsser
ton that the Legislator