Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-03-30
USvTsg LEGISLATION.

OHinese Dill, empowering municipalities W
remove the Chinese beyond their limits.
The utility and wisdom Of enacting such.
laws as this are even more questionable
now than before the United States Circuit
Court had declared the corporation bill
unconstitutional. The new bill was de-
Tended in the Senate on the ground that it
was not in conflict with the State Consti-
tuition. Surely this is not a respectable
argument in such case? Il is notorious
that the new Constitution is itself in open
contravention of the supreme law of the
land in several of its provisions, and that
consequently these provisions are not
worth the paper they are written on. But
such legislation as has been had this session
ON the Chinese question is not less impoli-
tic than futile, if the real desire of men,
bers Is to solve the Chinese problem, and
the proof of this position is not far to
seek. In the first place the passage of dis
eliminating and proscriptive laws against
the Chinese when such laws are known by
all intelligent persons to be invalid, can
only tend to foster and intensity the i'll
feeling already existing on this subject
among the unthinking and ignorant.
These people do not stop to draw rational
distinctions. They are swift to adopt
Kearney's suggestions that the United
States Courts are somehow being prosti-
tuted to the use Of the shell bound Chi
"nese lovers, which comprehensive phrase
| is made in the fancy of the Sandlots to
embrace all the law.abiding classes. In
this way the idea of an irrepressible con-
fict between the State and Federal
Government is being instilled into
the minds of many people who
cannot do their own thinking, and
! the result is to render them more
prone than ever to violent measures, and
less amenable to reason. 1t is presumable
that legislators who defend and vote for
unconstitutional measures of the persecut-
ing kind, do so in order to make for them
selves desirable records. In this also we
think they are quite mistaken, believing
that the best and most enduring record
public men can make is founded upon I'M
compromising sincerity, truthfulness, and
independence. Kane's bill is not capable
of being put in operation. That fact was
| certainly understood by all who voted for
| it. 1t would therefore have consorted
better with their dignity and self-respect,
had they resolutely refused to indorse a
measure which they well knew to be of no
effect, and which could only entail perfect
ly useless expenditure of the public funds
in testing its constitutionality. In such
case they might well have taken the posi-
ton that regard for economy required
them to oppose legislation which was no
better than spreadeagleism so far as prac-
tical results CO. and the passage of which
could only create expectations among the
ignorant, the failure of which would be
suee to increase the dangers of sui
| ficiently critical situation.
In the second place, the enactment OF
such laws as this prejudices California with
the rest of the Union, and at a time when
it is specially desirable that all such causes
of disgust and repulsion should be avoided.
For whatever weak minded politicians may
tell their constituents on the stump, the
fact is certain that the Chinese question
can never be settled until it is settled at
Washington, and that whatever looks like
persecution on this coast has direct ten
dency to retard all remedial action at the
seat OF government. Anti-ChineSe bills,
consequently, are the worst policy that
could be pursued here, and their passage
reacts strongly against the best interests
of the California workingmen. Indeed it
must be said that the chief obstacles to
progress in this connection have from the
first been created by local politicians,
whose tendency to demagogism has re-
peatedly checked fair hopes of relief by
causing a revulsion of feeling in Congress,
or among the classes whose opinions sway
Congress. Local politicians have in these
cases sacrificed the public good TO their
petty personal ambitions, and both parties
have been equally culpable in this regard,
for each has been fearful lest the other
might score a point in advance, and so
] wi 10
propositions have been accepted by
all without remonstrance 1t is prob
able that the California public are
alone capable of putting an end to this
mischievous and foolish course, by making
it understood that they are not deceived as
to the true significance of these preposter-
GUS bills, and that they do not propose to
credit the trainers and hackers of them
with any public spirit for their action.
The Kane bill would never have passed the
Senate if members had been convinced that
their constituents saw through the motives
which actuated them in voting for it, but
while it is believed that the people applaud
every blind and impracticable assault on
the Chinese, this kind of useless and stupid
legislation will doubtless continue We
think it is time the public showed their
comprehension of the fact that the Chinese
can never be made to ''go" by any such
measures as these, but that such measures
tend to prevent the enactment of the only
kind of laws which will solve the problem.
Defying the United States Constitution is a
very poor sort of game, and in the end it
is liable to become very expensive game
in more ways than one.
ERRONEOUS CosCLUsIoNs.
1t is understood that efforts were made